


The Fallen Star of Falena

by starletprincecaydency



Category: Suikoden V
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-06-25
Packaged: 2019-10-13 11:19:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 8
Words: 66,991
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17487161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starletprincecaydency/pseuds/starletprincecaydency
Summary: To begin, I would like to point out that I don't have a summary at the moment - I never thought of one while writing it. Second, I never wrote this with the intention of posting it anywhere, so the separation of the chapters might be a little odd - the story is chaptered as before, during, and after, so the second and third chapters are quite lengthy. Third of all, I'm not much of an artist - therefore, the original characters will have to be visualized by your imaginations alongside the descriptions I have for them.With that, I hope you enjoy this story. I never wrote this story with an ending point in mind, so when I finally hit last night, I felt content to end it where it sat. This is the largest piece of writing I've done, and the one I've worked on the most. This one I worked on intermittently for the past three years, and I feel good about it, so I hope all of you will feel good about it as well.





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> To begin, I would like to point out that I don't have a summary at the moment - I never thought of one while writing it. Second, I never wrote this with the intention of posting it anywhere, so the separation of the chapters might be a little odd - the story is chaptered as before, during, and after, so the second and third chapters are quite lengthy. Third of all, I'm not much of an artist - therefore, the original characters will have to be visualized by your imaginations alongside the descriptions I have for them. 
> 
> With that, I hope you enjoy this story. I never wrote this story with an ending point in mind, so when I finally hit last night, I felt content to end it where it sat. This is the largest piece of writing I've done, and the one I've worked on the most. This one I worked on intermittently for the past three years, and I feel good about it, so I hope all of you will feel good about it as well.

 

**Chapter One**

**The Beginning**

* * *

     It was in the dead of night – not a single soul was to be found outside, and it was far too quiet for things to be normal; then again, this sort of environment was normal for the group in question. There was but a single light on in a building that seemed to stand out on a desolate stretch of land about ten miles northeast of Sable. All of a sudden a faint thud was heard, along with a yell from what appeared to be a strong male.

     “Do it again!” A small girl shakily stood back to her feet after appearing to have been thrown against the wall, her chest heaving as she fought to catch and steady her breathing.

     “But sir, I...” She tried to protest, but was interrupted with a yell of anger and persistence.

     “I said to go again! Do you wish to be reminded of what shall happen if you do not cooperate?” It was that one question that had the girl holding her two-handed sword up in an offensive manner, fear in her eyes. When he gave her the piercing look that commanded her to do as she always had, she ran forward and swung her sword at him, suddenly catching him off guard and watching as his bo-staff was released from his grip. This granted her the gift of having the upper hand, and with it she took hold of his arm and twisted it up and behind his back while pressing on a single pressure point, which brought him to his knees. It was the gift of two words that allowed her to let him go and smile – “Good girl.” She released him immediately and stepped away, and when he stood to his feet once more, he pet her on the head in a praising manner before turning away. “If you keep up like this, you’ll be rising through the ranks in no time flat. I’ll help you learn, and together we’ll be unstoppable. Are you up for the task?” She nodded her head obediently, and when he finally turned off the lights and left the room to close their training session, she laid down into her bed and closed her eyes, speaking to herself how she felt nothing but pain, yet all her face held was a smile – the smile they’d taught her to use to hide her pain, to hide her true intentions when given a task to complete by the group’s master.

     The years passed, and she turned heads both in the group and out, and soon she was given the rank of a Full-Fledged Murderer. She succeeded in every mission she was told to complete and passed every test they gave her with flying colors. When they would hit her for doing wrong every once in a blue moon, she would continue to smile as if nothing had even happened, even when a mark or scar would adorn her skin. She was their best member, and the strongest. She was their strongest line of defense and offense, and their best flank. If she failed, they were all doomed – this was never an issue as she continued to succeed, no matter the mission, task or test.

     It was one dark and stormy night that their toughest battle to date had come, and this time it was all coming to a head in their own base. It wasn’t long before troops bearing orange, red and silver gear, with but one mission in mind – to break down this group, which held the name Nether Gate close. They were destroying members of the dark group in the same amounts that they were being decimated as well, the head of the group persevering over all – Ferid, a barbaric swordsman from some foreign country who had taken the hand of Arshtat Falenas in marriage after her Sacred Games had been completed.

     Ten members or so remained; the girl, her master and his subordinate, and a few strays that were using the chaos to escape the building and seek refuge elsewhere to avoid death. She had been separated from her master and his sidekick, leaving her in a room by herself. While a few members of the Queen’s Knights stood off with said leader and sidekick, Ferid was faced with the girl alone, and was standing defensively in case she tried to attack. He noticed, however, that despite her rank within the group, she was hesitating to even make a move against him – as if she’d had enough, but was still wishing to obey her master by the rules she had been given since the first day she arrived within the group.

     Finally, instinct took over her entire being and she lunged forward at Ferid, her sword swinging in a maniacal manner. While her eyes were filled with the desire to kill, Ferid seemed to see something different – the hope to become a better person and for her to do more good than evil. He dodged her blows and grabbed her arm, staring her in the eyes before gathering his thoughts into a couple of sentences. “You’re smiling, yet I’m squeezing your arm with enough force to break your bone. They’ve corrupted you so much. Even if you aren’t able to execute your emotions in anything but a smile, tell me if you’ve had enough of this place. I don’t want to fight with you. I see the potential for you to become a great student to the Queen’s Knights, and to protect our country.”

     She stared into his eyes, bearing nothing but that simple smile that had adorned her features since a few short years into her time with Nether Gate. However, her words spoke of things other than happiness. “I don’t want to fight. I don’t want to kill people, but they’ve threatened to kill me if I didn’t cooperate with them... so I kept going and going. I wanted to live, so I kept killing. All I know how to do is kill and smile – it’s a habit I’ve formed from what they pressed into my brain... Please. Take me with you – I can’t stand it anymore. I’m smiling, but I can’t do this anymore. I can’t cry, I can’t scream, I can’t wince in pain – I can’t show anything but a smile. I want to change it all, even if I’ve killed more people than my age...”

     This was all Ferid needed to hear to make the decision to take her back to Sol-Falena with him. He asked her to stay in the room until he returned with his comrades, not wanting things to get ugly if Nether Gate’s master found out she was betraying them. When Ferid found his way to the center of the headquarters, he came face-to-face with the two remaining members in the building – the master and his lackey. “Surrender now while you still have the opportunity. There are six of us and only two of you left – you’re outnumbered. If you believe you stand a chance against us all, you’re suicidal.”

     The Master began to speak, and he sounded fairly confident in his words. “It won’t be long until Erismar shows herself – then you’ll all be wishing you had surrendered rather than us. If you want to believe you have even a small chance against her, you may as well take your own swords to your hearts now.” After a few more passes were made, they were eventually having a stand-off with each other until either one of two things happened – Nether Gate’s two remaining members surrendered, or Erismar would show herself to the Queen’s Knights and eliminate them. There was only one question in the Knights’ minds – who was Erismar?

     After a slow hour had passed with no change in position or activity, the two remaining Nether Gate members withdrew a single drink from one pocket of their pants. It was a glass bottle containing some sort of black liquid, and the label had a red X behind two letters – R.N. They both downed the entirety of the liquid and drew their weapons while beginning to growl like monsters, Ferid ordering his remaining soldiers and knights to exert the utmost caution in battling with the two now-monstrous members in front of them.

     A grueling hour-long battle took place between them, and while a soldier or two from Sol-Falena’s army had died, the knights and Ferid stood victorious while the two members of Nether Gate fell to the floor. They growled maniacally and convulsed while lying on the floor, their eyes white all over and empty; by now they were dead. Ferid ordered two of the knights to take care of disposing of the two dead members’ bodies while he had the rest follow him to seek out the girl he’d found earlier. They were however, being extremely cautious, as they had no idea who Erismar was, where she’d come from or when. When Ferid spotted the girl, he immediately put his arms around her form and held her protectively. “Don’t worry. They’re here with me. They’re the Queen’s Knights. My name is Ferid – can you tell me your name?” When the name “Erismar” left her lips, all of Ferid’s worries went away, and the Knights’ as well when he told them she wasn’t to be worried about.

     When daybreak was beginning for the following day, they were finally arriving back in Sol-Falena. Kyle, Georg, Sialeeds and the rest of their guards were there to greet them warmly. Georg, however, brought his hand to his sword as if to draw it when he saw the girl step off the ship in Nether Gate’s traditional clothing style. Ferid stepped in front of her and explained the situation in short to Georg, and when it was all said and done he gave her his sincerest apologies for nearly attacking her. Though she kept that same smile on her face the entire time, she accepted his apology with a change in her inflection here and there.

     Following their return to the palace, Ferid gave Georg the task of leading Erismar to a room of her own while he would return to Arshtat to explain the situation. At first, Erismar was a bit hesitant to follow Georg but eventually warmed up to the idea – he had to remember that while she could only smile this way no matter the circumstance, she may not be feeling happiness at every second she would appear to show it.

     Prince Freyjadour, Lyon, Princess Lymsleia and Miakis were all present when Ferid entered the audience chamber and proceeded to explain the situation. When he started, Lyon was the first to show anger, as Ferid had only explained the part about this girl being a member of Nether Gate – however, when he began to tell the rest of the story, she was eager to excuse her previous anger and caution as she knew this was the same situation that she had been in just years ago in her youth. Arshtat was highly understanding of the situation, and even told Ferid to assign Georg as her bodyguard while she was recovering from her previous situation as a member of Nether Gate. She ordered all others present to remind those who were not present to take the utmost care in treating Erismar with love, care and a nurturing attitude, and that she and Ferid would adopt her as their own child to make her feel more welcome. They felt they had to do this more with Erismar than when Lyon had been rescued as Lyon’s situation wasn’t as severe as Erismar’s own.

     As the day turned into nightfall, Georg found himself alone in the Guard Room with Erismar, and had spent the day getting to know her. The one conversation he hadn’t started with her was the most personal for her – why she couldn’t show anything but this one smile, among other things. Without even thinking, his mouth opened and asked the question. “Erismar, I’m curious about something – why can you do nothing but smile?” This question had her eyes suddenly focusing directly on him, and while the smile never left her face she did appear to be surprised at his curiosity.

     “Ah... I’m surprised you did, but I was expecting you to ask. Well... When I first joined Nether Gate, they had found me when I was just three years old. My parents were dead and I was in a burned-out village seeking refuge. I stumbled upon the last house, which held nothing but a group of bandits, or so they claimed to be. They turned out to be the group you all knew as Nether Gate. They trained me from the very first day I arrived there on how to do but a small array of things – kill, smile to hide my true intentions and my pain, and rise victorious in any and everything they ordered me to do. Within just a year, all I knew how to do was smile, and within five I knew only how to kill. By the time my time with them had amassed ten years, I was a full-fledged murderer in their ranks. I was the best member they had on their side, and they had me lead all missions and execute all who opposed them. They ingrained it in my brain to know only how to smile and kill from the age of three.” All throughout the explanation, her facial expression indeed never changed from that one smile, and that was what pained Georg the most. Without any hesitation whatsoever, his arms were brought around her form and he held her in a comforting manner. While she didn’t physically shed a single tear, he could feel how much she was hurting from whatever emotions she was feeling that she didn’t have the ability to express on her face.

     “Erismar, I’m going to help you be a person again – the person you wish to be. Not this. This isn’t a life anybody should have to live... If you want me to help you, all you have to do is say the word and I’ll be by your side through thick and thin. I’ll protect from any and everything that stands against – I swear it.” She gave him her thanks and had him escort her to her assigned room, yet when he turned to leave her side, she grasped his wrist to stop him.

     “Georg – will you stay with me?” That was all it took for him to hold her to his large form and wrap her head in his forearms against his chest.

     “If it’ll make you feel better, Erismar, I’ll stay by your side all night. Let’s lie down and rest now. You need it after the day you’ve had.”

     They soon fell to a slumber in the same bed – her own, and as night turned into day, she awoke to Georg’s sweet smile and his arms around her body. “Good morning, Erismar. Did you sleep well?” She gave him a nod of her head and turned her head to find royal clothing sitting upon the bedside table, her eyes glimmering with a bit of simultaneous confusion and curiosity.

     “Sir Georg, what’s this..?”

     “I had Ferid and Arshtat bring out the castle tailor to make you some clothing fitting for a member of the royal family. You may not be by blood, but you’re part of the family now – I wanted you to feel more at home here.” Erismar’s eyes glimmered with happiness, and for just one second her smile seemed to match her true emotions. This brought a smile to Georg’s face, and he sat up to stretch his arms out above his head before looking to Erismar. “Would you like to go ahead downstairs and join the royal family and the Knights for breakfast?”

     With a nod of her head, she excused Georg from the room to change into the new clothes that had been set out for her. Her door clicked shut, and she began to strip herself of her former alliance’s clothing. She stared at the clothing for some amount of time, her smile fading in a flash of a second as she began to feel the total impact of the scarring her experiences had left her with. Through the side entrance of her room into the small storage area tucked away a room attendant came in, and when she noticed Erismar in nothing but a pair of underwear and her chest completely revealed, she found a sight she wished she had not – scars and bruises adorning her skin that looked to have been a least a decade old, and her body severely undergrown in the sense that she had the height of her age but no breasts to show for it. Erismar, with eyes beginning to well up with tears, dropped to her knees and began to sob hysterically, her breathing starting to speed up significantly as her arms wrapped themselves around her chest as if to give herself a hug. The attendant immediately exited the room and located Georg across the hall, and promptly beckoned him to enter the room to comfort Erismar.

     Georg took a breath before knocking on the door, asking Erismar if she would like him to enter – her simple, one-worded answer called him into the room, and he was almost bewildered at the sight he was beholding. Without a second thought or a moment’s hesitation, he strode across the floor to her and knelt down to look her in the eyes – he saw tears beyond measure and a smile no longer adorning her features. Georg stammered for a couple of seconds in shock of the sight before wrapping his arms around her figure tightly, one hand grabbing her by the back of her head and holding it close to his chest, allowing her to hear his heart beat. “Erismar, shh. It’s okay. I won’t let them come after you again – you’re safe now. I promise you that I’ll protect you until my dying breath.”

     Georg stayed by her side to ensure she calmed down, and once she had, he helped her get dressed in her new clothes. He let her wrap her hands around his arm as he began to lead her away, not at all shocked that her smile had returned and she appeared to have no recollection of her attack – he’d heard about cases like this for post traumatic stress disorder. They would do anything and sometimes not even realize that they were pushing away the memories of anything to do with the event or events in question. He made his way downstairs with her before entering the audience chamber with her, bowing to Arshtat and Ferid and bidding them a good morning. He gave the same respect to Sialeeds, Freyjadour, Lymsleia, Lyon and the rest of the Queen’s Knights as well, giving Erismar a gentle smile. “It’s okay. You can sit wherever you like – this is your home now.”

     She took a seat next to Lyon and Georg, silently smiling as she waited for her food to be given to her – it’s what she had been taught to do for so many years, lest she suffer the fate of taking a beating for being too eager and needy. Ferid made no comment but gave the others a subtle look to make sure and not say anything about the obvious tension of the situation – he didn’t want to hurt Erismar. They all made small conversation with each other, making sure to include Erismar in whatever they spoke about. Once breakfast was finished, Georg pulled Lyon and Ferid off to the side to request to speak privately with them – Ferid then escorted them to the Queen’s Chamber to ensure said privacy.

     Ferid and Lyon both took a seat in the chairs at the side of the room while Georg sat in the one Arshtat would normally take for herself, his eye slowly gazing upon the two of them before taking a deep breath to gather his thoughts. “Erismar is... a case bigger than I thought she would be. They’ve corrupted her – far more than I could have imagined. For a few moments this morning, though, her smile faded – she cried. She was looking at her clothing from Nether Gate and it hit her. I want to have someone who once was with them come in and try to help her.”

     It was that thought that got Ferid’s mind to click into a single idea, his eyes gazing into Georg’s own. “I know of at least one person – his name is Oboro of the Oboro Detective Agency. I had him investigate a couple of things about Nether Gate back when I had rescued Lyon from them. I could get in contact with them since their ship is currently in Rainwall – he may very well know someone who used to be with them that could help her recover.”

     Georg nodded to him and stood to his feet. “I’ll tell Erismar and make sure she’s aware of this conversation – I just felt it would be easier to leave her out of this talk. I didn’t want to trigger any of her memories.”

     Lyon then spoke up and looked to Ferid. “I’ll go with Miakis to Raftfleet and go find Oboro’s ship for you. Would that be okay, sire?”

     “Of course. Be careful, both of you. Go to Miakis and head out immediately. Georg, you attend to informing Erismar.”

     When both of them retired from the chamber, Ferid looked at the floor and sighed deeply – something appeared to be on his mind. “Just a little longer. Please just wait a little longer for me.”

     Soon, Arshtat was slowly opening the door and entering, finding Ferid sitting alone in thought. She greeted him with a smile and sat next to him, looking into his eyes longingly. “Ferid, whatever could be the matter with you? Something is on your mind – I can tell.”

     He slowly looked into her eyes directly and began to speak, putting her worries to rest. “I’m having Lyon and Miakis seek out Oboro – they know the situation with Erismar and will request whatever help they can from the agency. I also have Georg guarding her until she is able to defend herself – unfortunately, that day seems pretty far away. It isn’t hard to tell by the condition I found her in. I worry about her and for her safety with what is likely to happen.”

     “I know Ferid, but we have to stand strong. We can’t let her think for even a second that something is wrong. We have to continue to reassure her that she is now safe inside of our Palace.”

     “I know Arshtat. I plan to do everything I can to make her feel safe. I can tell Georg is as well – he hasn’t left her side ever since I assigned him as her bodyguard. That’s all we can hope for until things finally come to a head here. With the Sacred Games quickly approaching, we have to do whatever we can to prepare for the Godwin and Barows factions...”

     Morning turned into afternoon, and soon Miakis and Lyon had returned to the Sun Palace with Oboro, along with his assistants Shigure and Sagiri. Ferid told Lyon to go retrieve Erismar and Georg, taking Oboro and company to the Commander’s Quarters in back of the Guard Room. He would wait there until Lyon had returned with Georg and Erismar in tow, Miakis being excused to go back to the Princess’ side. She closed the door behind the two when they entered and took a seat, soon taking one herself. The first to speak was Oboro, his eyes gazing upon Erismar’s face before looking to Ferid.

     “So Ferid, sir... I believe we all have something to discuss. I hear there was an... escapee, we’ll say, from Nether Gate. Is she the one?”

     “Well, more like a girl I rescued from them, but for all intents and purposes, Oboro, yes.”

     Oboro gave a hum of thought before beginning to speak again. “I see. Your two Knights said you requested that I find someone who had once been in Nether Gate – someone who could help her recover. So I have come to you, bringing my two assistants with me. This is Sagiri, and beside her is Shigure.” He would nod to the two behind him respectively when he would say each of their names, soon bringing his full attention to Erismar. “Miss, please – tell us everything, and we’ll do our best to help.”

     Without further ado, Erismar began to explain everything as she did to both Ferid and Georg, soon bringing into description an event she didn’t speak of to either of the two. “It wasn’t just the physical abuse that they implemented on me – it was psychological as well, aside from the obvious where all I can do is smile. They would force me to do things unimaginable... Sometimes if I disobeyed, they would take no hesitation in raping me in full to make sure I learned my lesson.”

     Lyon interjected with a silent comment of shock and horror, her eyes nearly welling up with tears. “Oh my god...”

     Shigure was the first to respond to the situation, uncovering his eyes and looking into Erismar’s own. “You have the same kind of eyes that we do – it’s right there.” Soon he spotted Lyon’s own and made a similar comment. “As do you; both of you are so similar to us. Erismar, was it? I was once in Nether Gate – so was my sister, Sagiri. We’ve endured similar experiences to your own... Normally I would find this to be an absolute drag, but I'm finding myself wanting to help you instead. Oboro, can I stay here with them? I want to stay here to help her. You can take care of sis, right?”

     Sagiri nodded to him and placed her hand on his shoulder. “Hmm. It’ll be fine with us. I can reside with Oboro and Fuyo alone just as easily as with you, Shigure. Do not worry for me – I will be alright.”

     Oboro gave Ferid a look of concern and sprung him a question. “Will it be acceptable for Shigure to begin housing with you all starting today? He seems to really be eager to help this young lady, and I believe he can.”

     “Of course, Oboro. Thank you for allowing him to stay with us on your end of the bargain. If it’ll help Erismar, then we will most certainly make it happen on our end as well. Shigure, you may stay in the room with Erismar – we will make sure a bed is prepared for you immediately. Lyon, have Miakis join you in escorting these two back to Raftfleet, alright?”

     With a proper agreement and leave from the palace, Lyon set off with her fellow guard to escort the two safely to Raftfleet.

     Shigure followed Georg and Erismar to the room they would be staying in, Georg telling Erismar to go on in while he stood outside to speak with the other male beside him. “Shigure, I want to make you aware of a couple of things. She appears to be malnourished in some way – she’s a teenager yet has no body figure to show for it except for her height alone. She has scars and bruises from so long ago that are ingrained on her body – her clothes from Nether Gate are painful for her when she looks at them. Help her get through it if I am ever not here with her.” Shigure simply agreed and kept any comments to himself before entering her room with Georg by his side.

     They all sat together at the table in the center of the room, making small talk with each other while the room attendants came in to set up an extra bed for Shigure, soon leaving them be once things were settled. One of them called from the door that dinner was to be ready very soon, and Georg clapped his hands together once in joy. “Alright; time for an amazing meal! Come on, you two. Let’s eat up.”

     Together, the three of them made their way to the audience chamber, where the dinner table had been set up in the center for them to sit at and eat. Once the chefs had brought the food out and placed it upon the table, Ferid made a single comment that tore everything to shreds. “Let’s have a raging feast, everyone! Eat up!”

     Erismar was found blankly staring at the table, suddenly seeming to grow scared of something that couldn’t be seen or known to the others around her. “R-... Raging... N-No. Please, you can’t... Don’t do it to me, please!!” She begged and pleaded with them, rising to her feet in a rush of terror, backing away until her back was to the wall. Ferid calmly stood up and approached her, causing her to cry out in fear as she fell to her knees and proceeded to sit down and curl up in the fetal position. Lyon stood up cautiously and ordered everyone out of the room, save for Ferid, Georg, Shigure and Arshtat. Lymsleia was begging Miakis to tell her what was going on while Freyjadour simply embraced her and rushed her out of the room with Miakis following close behind them.

     Shigure knelt down in front of Erismar and held her, already aware that she was on the road to a maniacal breakdown – she had to be restrained immediately lest she destroy everyone in the palace and tear them to shreds.

     Georg helped to hold her down while trying his best to comfort her, his body embracing her own from the side and Ferid’s body kneeling down beside Shigure’s so he could speak to her. “Erismar, I’m not going to do anything to you or your food. You’re alright.”

     Erismar’s body was starting to tremble violently as if with the intent to break free and kill, and she was beginning to growl hysterically while mumbling things of negative nature. “Kill... Kill!! Must kill! Get away from me – kill!!”

     Georg and Shigure tightened their holds on her body, who began to yell at her. “You’re not going to do anything of the sort – do you understand me?! You’re not one with Nether Gate anymore... Don’t fall back into their patterns.” Ferid was knocked back a bit when her foot swung out to kick him in the gut, his facial expression faltering not a single bit – he remained strong in her stead as she fought against them and whatever they tried to do to calm her.

     “Die... Die!!”

     Lyon finally ordered them to stand Erismar up onto her feet, and she did something she honestly despised having to – she approached the other female and swung her fist into her gut, knocking her out cold immediately.

     Erismar’s body fell limp within Shigure’s embrace, which kept her held steady. “Easy, easy... Georg, I’ve got her. It’s alright.”

     Georg reluctantly let her go but stood down when Ferid gave him a look of reassurance. Arshtat watched from a distance, but soon spoke up. “Good job, all of you. Shigure and George, go take Erismar to her room. Lyon, let everyone outside know that it’s safe to come back inside. Also, Georg – make sure she eats before either you or Shigure sleep tonight.”

     “Yes, Your Majesty.”

     Dinner was eaten in peace and quiet for those present – Arshtat, Ferid, Lyon, Miakis, Freyjadour and Lymsleia. Georg and Shigure decided to stay with Erismar to ensure she was alright upon waking up, which happened shortly after dinner had come to a close for those who chose to eat. Three meals were set aside to be eaten later – one each for Shigure, Georg and Erismar.

     Shigure was the first to notice her eyes open when she awakened, his hand gently holding her shoulder. “Erismar... Are you feeling alright? Lyon didn’t hurt you too much, did she?”

     Erismar shook her head and yawned a bit, looking back at Georg. “I... I’m sorry I caused such a ruckus at dinner tonight…”

     Georg moved closer to the two lying on the bed and shook his head, looking her dead in the eyes. “Erismar – you have nothing to apologize for. If anybody is to blame for this, it’s Nether Gate. They’ve scarred you so much that even hearing that word makes you a maniacal mess... It’s their fault; not yours, Erismar.”

     With a bit of hesitation, she agreed to his statement and went down to eat dinner with the two. They returned to her room afterward, watching her fall into a deep slumber before exchanging a single small conversation with each other. “This is... going to be quite the experience.”

     Shigure, with a light chuckle escaping his parted lips, nodded his head in agreement. “Georg, you’re right about that. This is going to be interesting indeed.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

**The Following Steps**

* * *

     The following year passed by in a flash, and the changes that had come to pass were astounding. Lyon continued her training and became the bodyguard to Freyjadour, and Erismar as well as she began to let go of her patterns Nether Gate once embedded into her mind and began her training as a Queen’s Knights apprentice, just like Lyon. She rose to the occasion and surpassed everyone’s expectations no matter the task or trial – that was the only reason she was thankful for the training she had received from Nether Gate. After some time had passed by, Lyon and Erismar became like sisters to each other, never once leaving each other’s sides, nor the Prince’s. Georg kept up his training as well, now permanently housed in the Sun Palace, occasionally having to drag Kyle by the ear back to his duties when he’d be distracted by women all over the town.

     Meals had become much more peaceful and enjoyable since Erismar had begun to let go of her old habits, and had since taken on a new name – Eris. It was a play on her old name but something new for her that would make her feel more at home, and she welcomed it with open arms. She grew extremely close to Arshtat and Ferid, starting to see them more as parents than a man who rescued her and his wife, and started to see her fellow Knights as her friends rather people who were only helping her due to the order of their commander.

     It was about midday, and a normal one for the Sun Palace – Knights were training under the supervision of Ferid, and Lymsleia was with Arshtat, partaking in her daily studies that would prepare her for her future as the Queen of Falena. Lyon, Miakis, Frey, Sialeeds, Georg, Shigure and Eris were preparing the palace for the arrival of the guests, Gizel and Lord Godwin for the engagement of Lymsleia herself. Each one of them, save for Shigure, had a bit of a long face about it – Gizel had emerged victorious at the Sacred Games when Belcoot had been drugged with the Dark Arcanum by Marina the morning of the final match, and they all knew it was the most likely outcome.

     Sialeeds immediately noticed the long face her nephew was sporting, and immediately she proceeded to shut it down. “Frey, you have to put on a brave face tonight when the guests arrive. I know – you don’t want to see her be married off to him, but you can’t let her know anything is wrong. None of us can. We have to pretend nothing is going on until the very end, okay?” Frey simply nodded his head and kept quiet on the matter, Lyon flashing him a smile to cheer him up.

     Miakis gave a giggle and placed her hand atop his head. “C’mon Prince, cheer up! You gotta come up with a plan to stop him! Oh, I KNOW! Why don’t you run up during the ceremony and scream at him “You’ll marry her over my cold, dead body!”! C’mon Prince, it’ll be fun!!”

     Lyon gave her a scolding look and shook her head. “Miakis; I know we don’t want her married to Gizel, but we can’t just jump in and interject like that...”

     Miakis pouted and crossed her arms, looking away. “Aw, no fair Lyon! You’re no fun…”

     Georg chuckled and shook his head, continuing to prepare the room. “Alright kiddies, let’s get this place looking good for the guests when they arrive.”

     The hours passed by and guests poured into the palace, and a rather unusual but necessary sight was seen next to the thrones – Gizel and Ferid holding a conversation as if it was something normal for them. Georg could see the long faces on Lyon and Frey’s faces, and he shut it down almost immediately. “You two need to look a bit happier. I know you’re as upset as Arshtat and Ferid, but you have to try to look happy for Lym. You can’t upset the guests either, and if Gizel sees you two looking like this, he’ll find out you two know something’s going on... and I don’t know what he’ll do then. So we have to be brave about this, alright? Besides, you two could learn a thing or two from Ferid. He doesn’t want to be nice to Gizel, but he’s having a civil conversation with him as we speak. Sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to for the sake of those around you.”

     After a short amount of time had passed after their conversation, Ferid was already ushering the guests out of the Palace, including Gizel and Marscal Godwin – Lymsleia was growing exhausted from all of the excitement and was ready to retire for the night. Night soon fell upon the palace, and it was assumed everyone was sound asleep in their beds. Of course, Gizel was outside talking with his assistant, Dolph – he gave but one simple task on the side of scattering the Sol-Falena troops and capturing the palace; destroy Eris in whatever way Dolph felt was necessary to keep her quiet to her fellow guards and family. Of course, nobody could have expected what he would do when he suddenly appeared in her guard room, silent and alone save for the two of them.

     He swiftly and silently locked the door behind him to ensure nobody would intrude on his little game, a small grin appearing on his face as he stared down at Eris as she slept in her bed. He took his stride across the floor to the bed, sliding one hand up her shirt to grope her flat chest while the other would clamp down over her mouth as she began to stir in her sleep so she would keep quiet. “Hm... If you came back to us, I could make it so worth your while...” Her eyes slowly opened to see his face in front of her own, and he leaned down to whisper into her ear – his voice was low, hushed and slightly seductive but very calculated. “By “worth your while”, I mean your little friends don’t get killed. Keep quiet, my dear little Erismar... lest you wish to find yourself being tortured like the good old days. Now... on with the show in here, as the real performance outside is only just beginning...”

     As his hips lowered themselves down to rest against her own, the sounds of battle were beginning out in the halls, downstairs, in the audience chamber... it sounded like a massacre. Eris began squirming her hips about, closing her eyes tightly as she exerted as much effort as she could to free herself from Dolph’s twisted hold on her. Dolph, as a punishment for her constant resistance, slid his hand down to grasp at her womanhood through the bottoms she wore. Eris began to cry, tears falling down her face and whimpers escaping against Dolph’s hand that still pressed against her mouth. “Dearest Erismar... What did I tell you about resisting all throughout your stay with Nether Gate? Don’t. You won’t like what happens as a result.”

     Meanwhile, Lyon, Frey and Sialeeds put a stop to the Nether Gate assassin that had tried to kill Frey as he ‘slept’, but Lyon could tell something was wrong – Eris wasn’t with them. “Sialeeds, where’s Eris?”

     “Eris? I don’t know. She might still be sleeping – she sleeps like a rock.”

     Suddenly a familiar voice entered the room. “No. If there’s anything any of us know about her, it’s that she wakes up when something’s wrong, no matter what it is. Something’s wrong – she wouldn’t still be sleeping.”

     Lyon looked to the door to find Shigure standing before them, soon nodding and looking back to Sialeeds and Frey before starting to exit the room. “We have to find her. Let’s go!”

     They went straight to her guard room that was a few doors down from Frey’s room, beside Lyon’s own room, and tried to open the door... but Shigure found it was locked. “She never locks the door. Eris!! If you can hear me, answer me!” He called out to her, trying to force the door open somehow with all the reasonable might he could muster.

     Dolph closed his eyes, shook his head and smiled, looking deep into Eris’ eyes before leaning down to whisper into her ear again. “Oh my... Your little friend is here to… rescue you. Too bad he can’t get the door open. Just look at you... You’re shaking so much. Are you really that scared, little Erismar?” Eris cried against his hand and whimpered out, her hips squirming about as she tried to get him away, which only furthered his groping and fondling. As further punishment, he leaned down to bite on her ears, which sent a shiver up her spine.

     Before he could say anything, a small hiss began to sound out from between her legs; despite how scared she was, she did it on purpose to somehow deter him. He made a face of utter disgust, yanking away his hand before shoving her head down on the pillow. “Disgusting bitch. What the hell is wrong with you? I don’t have time for this.” He took this opportunity to silently stride back over to the door to unlock it before disappearing from the room with his mysterious ways.

     Shigure finally pushed the door open, only to find Eris crying fearfully and her bedding wet underneath her. “Eris, what happened?” He knelt down beside her bed and wiped away her tears as he tried to get her look him in the eyes, only hearing fearful whimpers escape her before Lyon interjected.

     “We don’t have time to talk about this. We have to get out of the palace before more of those assassins show up. It’s too dangerous here!”

     Sialeeds nodded and began to usher everyone out, being stopped by Kyle and Zegai as they entered Eris’ room. “Zegai, Kyle! Oh, thank god you two are here… Where’s Lym and the others?”

     Kyle gave her a reassuring look and nodded his head to her. “I haven’t seen Lym yet. Georg is helping Ferid protect Arshtat in the audience chamber. I’ll stay behind and make sure Gizel doesn’t try anything. Zegai, I want you to go with them.”

     “No. I wish to stay. There is more fighting here.”

     Kyle looked Zegai in the eyes seriously, sighing out. “I know, but I would feel better if you were with them.”

     “Alright; I’ll go.”

     With all said and done, they exited Eris’ room, Shigure carrying Eris on his back while everyone else followed behind him, not really concerned about the fact that her wet bottoms were leaving behind a wet spot on the back of his shirt.

     Lyon spotted Georg crossing the hall and beginning to head back towards the staircase, stopping him as she called his name. “Georg!”

     “What are you all still doing here?”

     Shigure placed Eris down on her feet as she wiggled a bit, seeming to be ready to walk on her own now. Sialeeds frowned at Georg and took a step toward him. “What about you? Aren’t you supposed to be with Arshtat and Ferid?”

     With a wave of his hand, Georg tried to dismiss them and keep walking away from them.

     “Georg..?” Lyon questioned him, not understanding why he wouldn’t speak to them on the matter.

     Finally, with a deep inhale and exhale, he closed his eyes and stood in his place, almost cemented there. “The Queen, and Ferid… They’re dead.”

     Lyon’s eyes gaped open as she opened her mouth to speak, her body stepping forward only a slight amount. “What? But, Ferid...”

     While Sialeeds spoke her piece, Eris seemed to be the one most devastated by the announcement, even more-so than Frey. “They... N-No... They can’t be... G-Georg, tell me you’re lying. Please... Please!!” Georg didn’t say anything, his head lowering as he tried to ignore her cries. “Georg!! S-Say something, please..! Tell me they’re not really dead... P-Please... Georg, please..!” When he still refused to say anything, Eris dropped to her knees and began to sob, Shigure kneeling down and holding her, standing her back up on her feet.

     Georg only said one thing, his voice low and almost broken. “I’m sorry.”

     He didn’t hesitate for long to make his next statement, looking back at them. “There’s nothing else we can do here. The Sun Palace is about to fall. We have to get out.”

     Eris sobbed and took a heaving breath, her eyes looking to Georg’s own. “What about Lym?”

     “Miakis and Galleon are with her. Leave Lym to them. Come on, let’s go.”

     Sialeeds nodded and wiped her eyes clean of her tears, starting to move forward after explaining to them the hidden door at the end of the hall in case of emergencies like this, but stopped when she noticed Eris wouldn’t move.

     “No... I have to at least save Lym!! I can’t leave her here...”

     Georg sighed and turned around to stand in front of her, looking deep into her eyes. “Listen to me. You can’t barge out there acting all cocky and confident like you could back in Nether Gate. They know you’re here – they’ll take no expense in killing you on sight.”

     Eris shook her head, starting to yell at him. “I don’t care!! I have to save Lym!!”

     Georg sighed deeply, closing his eyes before ramming his fist into her gut the same way Lyon did to her during dinner her first night in the palace. Catching her as her body began to fall limp, he sighed. “I’m sorry Eris. Come on, we need to go. I’ll carry her.”

     With an unconscious Eris and saddened Frey in tow, they fled the palace through the escape door in the hall, finding an escape boat down in the area hidden away from the naked eyes of others. After they had boarded the boat and were sailing out, Eris began to awaken in Frey’s arms. “Hey... Are you alright?” Frey asked her as Zegai and Shigure paddled the boat onward.

     Eris simply nodded her head before Georg gave her an apology. “I’m sorry, Eris.”

     Sialeeds shook her head and looked up at him. “No Georg. You don’t need to be sorry. If you haven’t have done what you did, who knows what she would have done. You probably saved her life.”

     They soon arrived at Lunas after sailing to a hidden dock a bit south of Sol-Falena. Isato was the first to notice their arrival and hurried them to see the Oracle in her shrine, warning them of her grave worry of their condition. When she spotted them upon their arrival inside, she ran to Frey and gave him a hug, soon doing the same to Eris, whom she had grown fond of during their stay in Lunas when Lym went through her purification rite of passage. “Eris, Frey... Are you two alright? Where is Lym?”

     Frey shook his head and looked away, Sialeeds speaking up. “Lym is still in Sol-Falena, but Miakis, Galleon and Kyle are with her, so she’s alright.”

     Georg interjected and gave a nod of his head. “In a way, Lym’s already safe. They wouldn’t hurt her now – their next course of action is probably to install her as a figurehead Queen so they can have the upper hand in taking down Frey. So we can at least be sure of one thing – her safety.”

     Lyon then looked to Haswar and sighed a bit. “Can you please prepare our rooms for us, Haswar? I’m sure Eris and the Prince are very tired...”

     “Of course! Isato, please go make sure that gets taken care of for me.”

     “Yes, Oracle.”

     After a brief discussion, Lyon and Frey retired to their room, Georg to his own and Sialeeds to hers. Zegai remained outside of the rooms upstairs to help keep an eye on them, and Shigure led Eris to the room they were going to share. She sat down on the bed, not seeming to be too verbal – for good reason, of course. Shigure took a seat beside her, looking at her. “Hey. Are you alright?” Eris leaned over to rest her head on his shoulder, and he immediately wrapped his arms around her to hold her properly. “I know. It’s going to be alright, Eris. I promise. We just have to be lucky that all of us were able to escape. At least the Princess didn’t have to lose her sister and brother today too, right?”

     Eris gave a small nod of the head and pulled back to look him in the eyes. “Shigure... Why are you still here with me? I’ve been free of the after-effects of Nether Gate for a while now... so why didn’t you go back to stay with Oboro and your sister?”

     Shigure cocked an eyebrow before placing a hand on her head, not showing a smile but his actions almost giving off the feeling that he wanted to. “Well... I just felt I should stay with you, even after you started becoming free of their hell. I wanted to stay because I wanted you to have someone you could continue to relate to, even after you felt better. I’ve been in more than my fair share of experiences that were very similar to the ones you had while you were with them, believe it or not... and I wanted you to continue to have someone you could talk to about it if you ever wanted to.”

     Eris smiled at him and then sighed, looking away. “I... want to tell you what happened when you all found me in my room at the palace.”

     Immediately, Shigure’s eyes were on her and he raised a hand to her shoulder. “Eris, you know you don’t have to tell me, right?”

     She nodded her head and looked into his eyes. “I know. I want to tell you.” Without another second of hesitation, she began to explain things. “Dolph... He-“

     “Dolph? Who the-“

     “Short brown hair... brown eyes. He was wearing a white undershirt, something blue over it, and a pair of tan pants.”

     “Michafute... What the hell was he doing in your room?”

     “Michafute... So you knew him too?”

     Shigure nodded and closed his eyes. “Yeah... A... little too well. Anyway… Continue.”

     “He appeared in my room and he locked the door so no one could come in. He got on top of me, started touching me... and he covered my mouth so I couldn’t talk. I started peeing myself out of fear, and he left because he was disgusted by it...”

     Shigure stared at her, eyes blank. “Eris...”

     “I mean... It’s not something I hadn’t already dealt with from him or anybody else in Nether Gate, so I can’t say it was really what scared me... The violation I was already used to. It was the fact that I was seeing him in front of me again after spending so long without him being there.”

     Shigure nodded and looked into his eyes directly again. “I know the feeling. I... had my fair share of violations from him too. There was-“

     He was interrupted by a knock on the door. After being permitted to enter, one of the attendants came inside with a change of clothes for Eris. “Eris, Georg had us bring these out for you.”

     “Ahh; thank you ma’am. You can set them on the table for me and excuse yourself back to Lady Haswar.”

     “Alright. You’re welcome. Sleep well, Miss Eris.”

     After the door closed, Eris stood to her feet and began to strip her clothing without giving a second thought to the fact that Shigure was still in the room.

     His mouth fell open in surprise and called to her. “E-Eris, I’m not going to... do anything, but you’re just gonna take ‘em off with me here?”

     Eris looked at him in a confused manner, an eyebrow cocked. “What? Doesn’t everybody do this?”

     Shigure shook his head, standing up and giving her a genuinely curious look. “Eris, people usually change clothes in a room by themselves. Do you... No, I don’t even need to ask; Nether Gate, right?”

     Eris nodded her head and stripped herself of her clothing to show Shigure what they had done. “They taught me to always strip down when either the Master or Michafute came to see me... because this is what they would do if I didn’t. Eventually I learned to do it no matter what, and ever since then I’ve not given a care to whether or not anybody was in the room if I changed my clothes or took them off.”

     Shigure slowly stepped forward to touch the scars and bruises embedded on her skin, his eyes looking horrified. “We really are the same.” Before Eris could even ask why, he stripped his shirt to show scars similar to her own, taking her hand and placing it on his chest where a deep scar sat atop where his heart was. “They did it to me too. I just… I hoped they hadn’t done it to anyone else after Oboro, my sister and I left. Who was I kidding though? They’re sadistic as hell – of course they’d keep doing it after I left... I’m sorry Eris. I’m sorry I didn’t stay with them. If I had, I could have helped you.”

     Eris shook her head and looked into his eyes. “No! Don’t ever say that... Nobody should ever have to stay with them like that... They shouldn’t have existed to begin with, Shigure, but... it’s nice to know that I wasn’t the only one they put through this sort of treatment. I don’t want to say that, but I am. I’m glad it wasn’t just me, as sick as that sounds...”

     Shigure shook his head. “No, I understand why you say it. You’re happy that you weren’t alone in the situation. I know. I sometimes wished there was someone there dealing with it like me when I was still there – so I could relate to them.” Shigure then stepped away and stared at her body in its entirety, looking over her back and then standing back in front of her. “Shit... They really let you have it back then, didn’t they?”

     Eris nodded her head, making a grab for the clothes on the table. “Yeah.” She began to get dressed, Shigure slipping his shirt back on.

     “Go ahead and get dressed, yeah. I don’t want anyone opening the door and thinking something is going on in here. Hah.” Not really understanding why he gave a chuckle at the end of his sentence, Eris gave a nod of her head anyway to excuse the comment.

     After a little bit of time had passed, they fell asleep for a while, as did everyone else. Shigure woke up to find Eris sitting on the floor, his hands reaching up to rub the sleep out of his eyes before yawning and sitting up. “Eris... What are you doing on the floor? You could have stayed in bed with me...”

     Eris nodded and looked back at him, shrugging her shoulders and sighing. “I know. I just... couldn’t sleep and felt like pacing, so I stayed out of bed to avoid waking you.” After a small pause, she stood to her feet and stretched out her arms. . “Let’s head down to the meeting room with Haswar. Everyone’s probably gonna be up soon.”

     Shigure gave an agreement and followed her downstairs, heading into the main room to find Haswar inside at the head of the table. “Good morning, dear. How did you sleep?”

     “Alright, I guess...”

     Haswar frowned and looked to Lyon. “Neither did Lyon, honey. It’s alright.”

     Lyon frowned and looked back at Haswar. “L-Lady Haswar! I asked you not to tell anyone…” Sialeeds soon came down and Georg as well, the lot of them talking amongst each other for just a bit before Isato ran inside in a frantic manner.

     “Oracle!! It’s an emergency! Godwin troops from Sol-Falena are headed this way!”

     Haswar stood to her feet and began to think of a way they could escape without the troops taking notice to them; then her eyes met with Isato’s for a brief time before she began to speak to him in a rushed manner. “Isato, take them through the passage out behind this building in the Northern Woods.” Isato made a brief objection to her, but she immediately shut him down. “I know. Isato please, for me?” Her attendant nodded silently and he began to usher them out of the building, and all the while her eyes gazed down at the floor, holding a look of worry inside of them. “Oh Frey, Eris... Please get out safely...”

     “Please, this way!” Isato ushered the group toward what seemed to be a dead end on the path that was clustered with trees, and Lyon couldn’t make sense of why Isato was leading them here of all places. “It’s a path only the elves know; this way.” He led them through the trees, Georg commenting on how it made him feel almost a bit woozy. They finally managed their way through, and Isato led them to the end of the woods, where he began to depart from them. “I must head back to the Oracle now. If you keep heading this way, you’ll get to Haud Village, and from there, Rainwall – Barows resides there. He’s a shady character, but right now you have to take advantage of the safety. He won’t hurt you.”

     Frey looked him in the eyes, frowning a bit. “Isato, come with us!” He extended his hand as if to shake Isato’s own, but he was met with a taste of rejection.

     “I’m sorry. I must go back to the Oracle now. My job is to stay by her side and keep her safe – I cannot abandon her now. I must return to her side for now. We’ll cross paths again, Frey – I’m sure of it.” His eyes finally met with Frey’s, flashing him a brief look of reassurance. “Be safe, all of you. I’ll let the Oracle know I saw all of you here safely.”

     Frey gave him a brief nod before leading the group out of the woods, and soon they reached Haud Village. It was definitely a sight, to say the least, as there were buildings made out of what seemed to be the worst artwork imaginable. Zegai’s only comment was “It is an attack on my senses.”

     Sialeeds gave a small laugh and looked back at him before looking back out to the buildings that adorned the village. “Barows wanted something a bit different around here, so he had all of the artists around here make something “grand”. He gathered all of the artists he thought had promise and this was the result.”

     After much confusion when Boz and his soldiers found Frey and company, they boarded his ship to head off to Rainwall, Zegai staying behind to not keep the others from being welcomed there. When they arrived, they headed straight for Barows’ Mansion, where they were greeted outside by none other than Euram Barows himself. “Frey! All of you!! I’m so relieved you all are safe! It’s such a shame our dear Princess wasn’t able to escape with you all, and that Arshtat and Ferid were killed as well... Come inside, please! You needn’t worry yourselves out here any longer!” He rushed them all inside where his father, Salum Barows, greeted them with that ever-so-calculated smile of his, the rings on his fingers glimmering slightly in the light.

     A brief exchange later, his daughter Luserina made herself known to them all before hushing her father and brother’s overly enthusiastic attempts at conversation. She led them all up to a room upstairs where they could finally rest. Her only parting words were “And if you need anything, please come and get me, okay?”

     Georg was flabbergasted at how this beautiful, kind young lady could be related to someone like Salum or Euram, his eyes closing as he took a breath. “How could someone as shady as Lord Barows...”

     Sialeeds chuckled a bit and sat down on one of the long chairs that lay on either side of the table against the wall, nodding her head in agreement. “Yeah, I know what you mean – but, they really are related. I’m really grateful right now though. Shady as he is, we can rest here and we all need that right now.”

     Lyon shook her head and looked around the room, seeming to be on her highest guard. “I don’t think we can relax quite yet...” Sialeeds gave her a concerned look, not quite understanding what she meant. After she gave a slight interjection, Lyon looked back at her before shaking her head. “I’ve heard that Nether Gate is working for Lord Godwin. You never know where or when those guys are going to strike. We have to keep our guard up.”

     Sialeeds sighed with a bit of frustration, looking back at her. “Lyon, don’t you think you’re being just a little too paranoid?”

     Lyon shook her head and closed her eyes. “No. I know what I’m talking about. I was once...” Her voice was starting to falter, and Shigure gave her a look of slight concern. “I was once a member of Nether Gate too.” Her voice began to break, Georg turning around to look at her in complete shock. “You were what?!”

     Sialeeds interjected, leaning forward in her chair while her eyes widened in surprise. “That’s impossible! You know, when Ferid took you in back then, you were as young as Lymsleia is now; how could you have possibly been a member of Nether Gate?!”

     Lyon opened her eyes, tears starting to well up in them. “They used to kidnap children that didn’t have any families and train them to be assassins. Day in and day out, they taught us nothing but how to hurt people… In two more years, they would have made me a full fledged assassin. I would have been a murderer by now... but before that could happen, Ferid rescued me. That’s why I would do anything to repay him. He’s the one that gave me the name Lyon too...”

     Eris looked at her, soon speaking up as well. “I didn’t know you were with them too, Lyon... I was trained up to the highest rank they could give me – a full fledged murderer... Ferid didn’t even know I was there until their troops stormed the place… He took me in and brought me back to the Sun Palace, and then I met all of you...”

     Lyon sighed and looked at Frey, her eyes full of worry and sadness. “Prince, I’m sorry I never told you. Do you think you can still trust me, even though you know about my past?” Her voice was begging him to still trust in her, as if she didn’t know what would happen if he were to say no.

     Frey’s head nodded and she smiled graciously, thanking him many times over to show her gratitude for allowing her to continue to guard him, bowing her head to him and soon covering her eyes as she cried in thankfulness.

     Nightfall soon came to the mansion, and Shigure was sound asleep in the room next to the one that Eris and company were rooming in. He wanted privacy, a space to think where he didn’t have to worry about waking anyone. “Damn it... Why was Michafute with them; why?!” He was angry that he was inside of Eris’ room when Lord Godwin’s forces and Nether Gate stormed the Sun Palace, his eyes looking out the window and filled with confusion. He turned around and sat on the edge of the bed, his eyes closing as he tried to think of some explanation for it... but his thoughts were soon interrupted when he felt the presence of another person enter the room.

     His eyes opened and Dolph stood before him, his body standing up and eyes widened. “Michafute; what are you doing here?” Dolph immediately sauntered his way up to Shigure’s taut body, placing a finger on his lips.

     “I would stay quiet if I were you, Shigure. We wouldn’t want your precious sister to get hurt, now would we?” He smirked as he threw out the right threat to shut him up, shoving Shigure down onto the bed and grabbing a fist full of his hair and yanking it. “We always told you to get a haircut Shigure. Now look at you – it’s covering your eyes. It doesn’t harm me though – it’s just another way I can hurt you.”

     Shigure closed his eyes and sighed, having been shut down immediately. Threatening to hurt his sister was the one way to keep him quiet with anything, and he tightened his closed eyes as he felt Dolph’s body hovering over his own.

     “It’s too bad. We could have done so much more to you.” He yanked Shigure’s body to sit him up, removing his shirt and tracing a finger over the scar on the long-haired one’s chest. “You never were obedient. Why do you think we did this to you, little boy? You never knew how to listen.” He shoved Shigure back down to lay on the bed again, glaring down at him. “Now, here we are again – I get to have my way with you and not a soul is going to know. It must be fate.” He chuckled a bit before kneeling down to where his head rested just over Shigure’s pelvic area. “Just... takes you back, doesn’t it?” Shigure began to recall everything all at once, and he shed tears of shame as he looked back on something he swore to never think of again.

* * *

_Shigure was sitting in his room, body tied up and squirming about. Dolph had come and gone as usual, having his way with the young sixteen year old. “M-Michafute... Please, let me go... I-I’ll listen this time, I promise... Just let me go!!”_

_Dolph shook his head and knelt down in front of the naked one on the floor, smirking at him slightly. “See... I can’t do that. We can’t run the risk of you telling anyone until we’re sure that you’ll keep your mouth shut. Then again, I could hurt your sister instead and see if that shuts you up.” He laughed when Shigure lifted his head to object, threatening Dolph that he’d get hurt if he lay even a single finger on Sagiri._

_He was shut back down when Dolph simply insisted upon hurting her, and then he tried to bargain. “I... Please, Michafute. Just let me go, okay?!”_

_Dolph only laughed at him, shaking his head and starting to fondle the teen’s shaft. “Just shut up and take it. You know the drill by now, so why do you still resist, Shigure?” Shigure whimpered out with no restraint, head leaning back as he couldn’t help his moans of pleasure – he didn’t want to but it just felt good. He was being violated but Dolph was touching him where he couldn’t hide his pleasure, and damn it, it just wasn’t fair._

_Dolph chuckled and kept going, looking down on him. “Oh my; I’ve never heard you make those sort of sounds before – not this loudly. This is so entertaining…~”_

_Shigure mewled and whimpered simultaneously, his body writhing and squirming as he tried to bargain with the older man grasping at him. “N-N-oo… I’m-nn... gonna—mn-...” His voice whimpered and his toes curled up on the floor, his control wisped away as the pleasure continued to volt through his body. He shook his head and bit back the tears trying to escape, Dolph’s hand_ _continuing_ _its movements._ _His seed spurted out of him against his will, body still taut on the floor and tears finally dripping down his face. “N-No… nn...”_

_Dolph smirked and left him tied up on the floor, exiting the room with nothing more than a laugh following his depart. Oboro was heard entering the room, acting as if he were on business but was actually trying to comfort Shigure as he sat in his humiliation._

* * *

     Dolph began to strip himself of his own pants, staring down into Shigure’s eyes. “Listen here. You’re going to suck me off. If you don’t do it good enough, I’ll force it to be good enough. Understand? Think of this as... payment for my services so long ago.”

     Shigure didn’t want to – god how he just didn’t want to... but in fear of what would happen if he didn’t, he pushed his head forward and started to suck Dolph’s cock, squeezing his eyes shut as he tried to push away the pain and humiliation. His breaths were shaky as he was almost fully crying, hands hesitantly placing themselves on Dolph’s hips.

     Georg was rolling around in his bed next door, and he looked around to notice Shigure was still missing from the room. He figured that maybe he’d gone to the bathroom, but he was starting to wonder if maybe something was wrong as he’d been gone for about an hour now. He silently stood to his feet and exited the room, looking around him and seeing nobody in the dimly-lit room... though something struck him as odd. He heard whimpers coming from the next bedroom over. For a second dismissed it thinking that it might have been Euram crying in his room over the Princess, but realized it sounded closer than that. He cocked an eyebrow and stood in front of the door, knocking on it. “Is anybody in here? I’m opening the door...”

     Dolph widened his eyes and cursed under his breath, realizing he’d forgotten to lock the door. The door slowly opened and he was met with Georg, who growled as he could tell from the sight that Dolph had forced himself onto Shigure. He stormed forward and pulled Dolph away from the younger that sat on the bed, but before he could do anything else to him, Dolph had disappeared into thin air.

     Georg stammered for just a moment before looking down to lock eyes with Shigure, who sat on the bed crying silently in shame and humiliation, like that time so long ago. Georg knelt down in front of him and put a hand on his shoulder, and before he could say anything Shigure began to cling to him, starting to cry hysterically into Georg’s chest. Georg sighed softly, placing a hand on the top of Shigure’s head and closing his eyes as he began to think to himself – _what happened to him to fuck him up this bad?_

     Georg waited for the younger to calm himself before leading him back into the other room to go back to sleep, making an exception to his normal behavior by permitting Shigure to sleep in bed with him if it would make him feel calmer while he slept. Of course, he took the offer and slept silently with Georg holding an arm over his side, trying his best to make him feel safe after the predicament he’d gotten caught up in.

     Shigure woke up the next morning, eyes lazily opening to gaze at Georg’s forehead, and for just a brief second he was shocked before he was greeted with the memory of Georg allowing him to sleep next to him for comfort. Georg could feel the younger begin to stir, opening his eyes to see him awake. “Mm... Morning. How did you sleep?” The response he received didn’t really shake him, as he expected nothing else.

     “I didn’t sleep that well last night.” Shigure’s eyes lowered to gaze toward Georg’s stomach, and for a second he considered speaking his mind about it but decided against it, rolling over and sighing out as he closed his eyes. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

     With a nod, Georg dismissed the subject and decided to let Shigure calm himself in his own ways, seeing Eris stir in her own bed. She was rolling and tossing, unable to stay still for even a moment. It seemed something was wrong, and before long she awoke with an audible gasp for breath, as if something had closed her throat up. “Eris; you alright?” She nodded to him and sat up, looking back at him before standing to her feet.

     “Yeah, I’m alright. I’m going outside for some fresh air. I’ll be back soon.” She nodded her head when Georg asked if she wanted to be alone, taking her leave from the mansion and setting foot outside. She was almost beginning to second-guess her decision, but knew that it was for the best for her comrades. Within a few hours time, she found herself somewhere she didn’t think she’d ever be again – Stormfist. As a couple of the town guards stopped her from entering, she requested to speak with Dolph.

     After a little bit of time had passed, Dolph found himself face to face with the young woman he’d violated just a few days prior, a small smirk coming to his face. “Yes, Erismar; how can I... assist you?”

     She closed her eyes, took a breath and exhaled, making eye contact with him after a long moment had passed. “I’m here to join forces with Nether Gate again, sir.”

     Dolph chuckled out and turned to the side, holding his arm out in the direction of Lord Godwin’s castle. “Right this way, Miss Erismar. I’ll take you to see Marscal Godwin immediately to arrange it.”

     Back at Barows’ mansion, everything was starting to become unsettled. Georg was waking up from a nap and had taken notice to the fact that Eris had yet to return to the mansion. Everyone was downstairs, and Georg headed that way himself to find everyone conversing amongst themselves. “Hey, guys. Has Eris come back yet?”

     Lyon shook her head, giving Frey a look of confusion before turning back to look at Georg. “Eris? No, we thought maybe she was just taking a walk around town. Why?”

     Georg looked at the floor, sighing out and giving her a look of slight concern. “She said a couple hours ago that she was going outside for some fresh air... but she hasn’t come back yet. I’m worried something happened to her.” Lyon’s eyes widened and then she gave a look to Shigure, who seemed to be contemplating making a statement.

     “I think I have an idea of where she is.” Georg turned to him, and before he could say anything in return, Shigure began to explain. “When we got to our room in Lunas, she said something in her sleep – something about a threat Dolph made. Something about how “he’ll hurt them if I don’t go back to Nether Gate”. I didn’t want her to think I heard it, so I didn’t bring it up... but if he’s anything like I remember him, he probably made a threat to kill or hurt us if she didn’t join forces with them again.”

     Georg slammed his fist on the wall after walking over to it, cursing out and closing his eyes tightly. “Damn it!! If she did go find them, where would she have gone?”

     “If Nether Gate is working for Lord Godwin now, Dolph is probably with them... and they’re in Stormfist. She probably went there. I wish there was something we could do... Godwin’s soldiers are going to be all over the place, so there’s no way we could just storm in and take her back…” Lyon’s eyes gazed down after what she had to say, a frown adorning her face.

     Shigure made a rush for the door, but before he could open it Georg had already grabbed him and had him in a full-nelson grab. “Shigure, don’t even think about it! You’re going to get yourself killed like that!”

     Shigure’s body shook and resisted, voice beginning to yell out. “I don’t care!! We have to get her back! We can’t just let her go back!!” Georg’s heart began to genuinely break as tears fell from the younger’s eyes, his resistance stopping and shaking only becoming more noticeable. “Please!! We have to do something!! Georg, please!” His chest heaved as he began to sob, and it was then that Lyon smacked him across the face and glared into his eyes.

     “Shigure; get a hold of yourself! We can’t just go storming into Godwin’s territory like that. We’ll get killed... and then what is Eris gonna do if he really did threaten to hurt us? She won’t have anybody to come back to. We can’t do that to her... and we can’t do it to Frey or Lym either. We have to come up with a plan first, okay?” Shigure was hesistant to agree but eventually did, and his body loosened up enough for Georg to feel comfortable enough to let him go.

     The group made their way upstairs to gather up a plan, locking the door to avoid causing a scene with anybody once they had returned home. Shigure began to think out loud, eyes looking to Shigure. “Why don’t you guys send me to Stormfist?” Lyon’s eyes widened, but this was a brief reaction before Shigure began to explain himself. “I’m not part of the royal family. Even though I was spotted here with all of you doesn’t mean I’m actually “with you”... Understand? So, because I’m with Oboro’s agency, you guys can send me there under the cover that I’m going to investigate with them on Oboro’s behalf. Then I can find Eris, and get the details on everything. It might even lead to a rift in their own forces if we can manage that, too.”

     Lyon smiled and nodded, but sighed out. “It’s a good idea, but...”

     Georg interjected with a comment of his own. “He might penalize us just because we sent you there, despite having no ties to the royal family at all.”

     “That’s right. We can’t risk it, Shigure. We have to lay low for a while until we have the odds stacked against them. I know you want to save her, but we have to wait a little while for now. I’m sorry.” Lyon gave them a look of sympathy before receiving a nod from him. “I know it’s hard for you right now, Shigure... but we have to go about this in the right way or we’ll likely get killed in no time flat.”

     Over the course of the next couple of days, Frey, Lyon and Sialeeds had joined back up with the two numb-skulls that had been stealing gold-dust from Lunas in the dead of night – Logg and Lun. Together they met with the dwarven fellow Gunde to make their way to Agate Prison from Baska Mine, where they proceeded to make haste in freeing Lucretia Merces from their holding cell. Her guards Cius and Lelei followed her proudly, and together they all returned to Barows’ mansion to come up with a plan to storm into Godwin’s territory and find Eris. Upon making mention of Eris, Georg noticed Lucretia seemed to know who he was talking about.

     “Eris? Are you talking of Erismar? She was one of Nether Gate’s strongest members – I heard she joined forces with you all in the Sun Palace before its fall.” With a nod from Georg, she smiled at him. “I assume you all have brought me here to help be the Prince’s tactician, and to also formulate a plan to retrieve her from them – is that right?”

     Frey’s mouth gaped open, and Lyon commented in surprise. “Yes but... how did you know?”

     Lucretia gave a soft laugh and looked Lyon in the eyes, swinging her feather ornament to sit in front of her mouth. “They don’t call me a tactician just because of my charming good looks, Lyon.”

     Lyon smiled and looked back at Shigure. “He’s been really antsy lately – he wants to save his little crush Eris!”

     Shigure blushed underneath his hair and glared at Lyon, crossing his arms. “Listen, girlie, I don’t have a crush on her!!”

     With a smirk, Lyon made a perfect retort. “Then explain why you want her back so badly, Shigure.” He was shut down immediately, but Lucretia proceeded to intervene.

     “Alright, you two; settle down. We need to figure out how we should retrieve her... This will prove itself difficult as now they’ve more-than-likely moved into the Sun Palace. It certainly won’t be an easy task, especially now that both are in their control. We’ll have to be careful, regardless of which task we set forth with.”

     Shigure then had an idea, eyes looking into Lucretius’s. “Why don’t we go consult Oboro? They’ve never seen us out together, so they have no idea we’re a group. We could ask Sagiri, Oboro and Fuyo to go speak with them, and go do an interview with Eris. Then they can come back to us and report what she told them.”

     Lucretia looked at her ornament longingly, nodding. “Actually, that sounds like a good idea. If they don’t have any idea you’re allied with Oboro, they’ll never expect that they’re coming on our behalf. Shigure, I’d like you to stay here with us while Frey and Lyon go to Raftfleet to consult with them. Sialeeds, if you will, go with them.”

     Georg nodded and stepped back. “Have fun, you guys!” When Lyon gave him a confused look, he shook his head. “I shouldn’t be seen in public with you all for a while. With that rumor going around that I killed the Queen, you won’t be welcomed anywhere that still allies with you, Prince. I’m laying low for a while.”

     Lyon nodded and bid them farewell, heading off with Frey and Sialeeds to Raft fleet in order to consult with Oboro and his assistants. Once they arrived, Frey bowed to them and smiled. “Excuse me, Oboro? We’ve come requesting you and your assistants’ services.”

     With curiosity, Oboro allowed them to sit down as they discussed the situation. Without any regard to consequences, Oboro nodded his head. “We accept. Anything to stop Nether Gate, Your Highness! Fuyo, Sagiri, we set out immediately! If our sources have told us correctly, they should be in Sol-Falena as we speak.” Sagiri and Fuyo started to get things set up to leave, and Frey, Lyon and Sialeeds bid them farewell for the time being.

     Upon returning to Rainwall and then Barows’ mansion, Lyon gave Lucretia the full report, earning a smile from both she and Shigure. “That’s great, Lyon. To the three of you, thank you for doing something so menial. This will surely prove to help us in the long run, assuming this works out in our favor when all is said and done.”

     The following days were filled with waiting, waiting… and even more waiting. Finally, on the third day of waiting, Oboro arrived with Sagiri to the mansion. Luserina made her way upstairs to bring back the company of Shigure, Lyon, Georg, Frey and Sialeeds. “Hello, Your Highness. We have come to you bringing news for you from Miss Eris.”

     Georg led them all upstairs to the room they all were sharing, each of them taking a seat at the table on the wall nearest to the door. “So, Boss, what did you find out for me?”

     “As you surmised Shigure, she went back due to a threat Michafute made to her. If she didn’t return, he would set out to kill all of you – this includes you, Lyon, Georg, Sialeeds, Lymsleia, Frey, and the rest of the Queen’s Knights. Not wanting to cause anything to happen, she immediately took off for Stormfist and found Dolph at Lord Godwin’s castle. Before Lyon and company arrived to request our services, they moved on to Sol-Falena to occupy it as well. However, Eris is simply there as a figure-head member. She doesn’t intend to actively do anything other than stay there for the sake of everyone’s safety.”

     Shigure sighed and looked at Georg, Lucretia, and then back to Oboro. “So… What’s our game plan now? I mean, phase one has been completed, but now the plan has to go more in-depth than just requesting someone else’s services…”

     Lucretia nodded her head, looking ahead of herself at her feathered ornament. “Hmm… You’re right Shigure, but the question lies in what can we do with who we have?” When Lyon began to question her, she smiled. “What I mean is… we need more allies in order to make something like this work. We won’t get anywhere based solely on who we have with us currently.”

     Georg nodded in agreement. “She’s right… but who in the hell could we possibly get on our side right now?”

     “Why don’t we try to help Lordlake? I’m more than certain we’ll be able to ally ourselves with them if we can somehow help restore their water. What do you think, Lucretia?”

     “Good thinking, Lyon. Eris will simply have to wait, but it’ll be easier if we do. Shigure, will you be alright with this?”

     With a bit of hesitance, he nodded his head. “Yes. I want her back… but if waiting and helping others first will help us do that, then I’ll do it.”

     As they were no longer needed, Oboro and Sagiri both departed from the mansion, returning to their ship in Rainwall – Fuyo had brought it to the dock in town while the two were gone. Lucretia gave Frey, Lyon and Sialeeds the task of going to Lordlake, taking leave to head to the Dahak in Raftfleet and speak with Raja – of course, Cius and Lelei followed her for protection. Meanwhile, Shigure gave Georg a look from behind his hair, saying only one thing to the older one. “I wanna talk upstairs.”

     Georg was led upstairs to the room he’d found Shigure in the night before, and just as soon as he could take a breath after setting foot inside, the younger man had locked the door to forbid any intruders. “What’s on your mind, kid?”

     “I want you to know what was going on last night.”

     Georg’s eyes widened, his hands raising a bit. “Hey, if you don’t want to tell me, don’t feel like you have to, man. Look, I can get the gist of it from what I walked in on...”

     Shigure shook his head and sat on the bed, looking down at his feet. “You don’t know exactly… what was happening. I mean, yeah, he was violating me, but… it was so much more than that.” He sighed and looked out the window before lying down on his back, staring up at the ceiling. “He said, “Consider it payment for my services so long ago”… and unfortunately I’m a little too familiar with why he said to consider it payment.” Georg’s eye brow cocked as he took a seat in the chair across from the bed, looking straight at Shigure. “Back when I was in Nether Gate with Oboro and my sister, Micha- I mean Dolph… He would make me do things to him or make me take shit from him as a means to keep me from disobeying. The only reason he would do it was because he wanted to fuck around with my head, and he knew that if he threatened to hurt Sagiri, I would do whatever he wanted. Sometimes it was just him jacking me off against my will – other times it was letting him make me take one up the back end if it meant he got a laugh out of it at the end of the night.”

     Georg let out an audible sigh of disdain as Shigure spoke to him, closing his eyes. “My god…”

     Shigure continued with his explanation. “One time he came into my room at the facility, and I was naked and wrists tied. He knelt down and started to jack me off after threatening to hurt her – it shut me down because I couldn’t let her get hurt. I let him do it, and it was the worst thing I ever had to take from him. I had to piss like crazy, and he wouldn’t let me go – he told me to sit there and take it. He kept going, and I finally pissed myself like a fucking baby, then I came too… The worst part was that I didn’t want to, but I was moaning and egging him on because shit… He was violating me, but he was doing it where it felt good on me. There was nothing I could do.”

     Georg shook his head, looking to Shigure once again. “What happened last night?”

     “He came in and cornered me onto the bed – he threatened to hurt her if I didn’t cooperate… so I started to suck him off to keep him satisfied enough to stay away from Sagiri.” Georg’s eyes darkened with a depressing aura, his body hunching over slightly as the weight of it all was even bearing down on him. “She’s my only family, and she’s the one person I can’t let anybody lay a finger on… I’ll do anything to keep her safe.”

     “Damn, Shigure… I’m sorry.”

     Shigure’s body sat up once again and he looked into Georg’s eyes, even though his own were hidden behind his hair. “I want Nether Gate to be destroyed – forever. I can’t keep living like this; worrying about the day they take her back and turn our lives upside down. They’ve been threatening it ever since I left too. “If you ever do anything against us, just know we could take her back at any point and ruin you for life”…”

     Georg nodded his head to the younger one, giving him a reassuring look. “When Lucretia comes back from Raftfleet, I’ll talk to her about it and see if she can come up with something.”

     “Thanks Georg.”

* * *

     They had since left Rainwall after they discovered Salum had been hiding the Dawn Rune in the basement, where it had chosen Frey as its bearer. Now they were in Raftfleet aboard the Dahak, where Lucretia and Frey’s groups both met up. The task Lucretia gave to Frey’s group was simple – go to the Ceras Lake Ruins and meet with her acquaintance Zweig.

     Once they had reached the ruins in question, Zweig led them through until they had reached the innermost room where the sluice gates could be controlled via the use of the Dawn Rune. Having been given no further instructions but to see if the ruins would still respond to the rune, they returned to Raja’s Dahak to speak with Lucretia. Her next plan was to have them wait and activate the sluice gates when they were given the signal, all while having collected the help of the beavers to have a dam built to catch the debris of the destruction of Hatred Fortress.

     Once all had been said and done, they occupied the Sindar Ruins that had been uncovered from the lake it was underneath for so long. Now standing inside of the headquarters of their army, Lordlake was standing strong beside them as their newest allies. Lordlake’s water supply had been returned to them after so many years and with it their alliance to Frey.

     On the side of Lordlake’s new alliance with them, Shigure, Oboro and Fuyo had also joined forces with Frey’s army. They took a room in the castle for themselves, yet Shigure took a separate room with Sagiri – he wanted nothing more than to continue protecting her, and to one day see a genuine smile on her face.

     Together they helped unravel the mysteries that were beginning to surround Frey and his army, and alongside Lucretia, they brought them to victory after victory, reigning supreme wherever they marched.

     They met Roy, the traveling bandit and his two sidekicks, Faylon and Faylen – his startling resemblance to Frey’s appearance helped them to use him as his stunt double from time to time. They gained the alliance of Sable, Raftfleet, Miakis, and Zerase, the mysterious woman in black, taking stride with them as well, and together they could conquer almost any storm they faced. However, there was but one thing they couldn’t overcome – something they didn’t think was to ever happen…

     Lyon went to retrieve Frey from his room, saying that Lucretia had called everyone into the war room for something important. When they arrived, Lucretia had a somewhat sour look on her face. “Prince, there appears to be an issue coming forward.” Lyon cocked her head to the side, wondering what was going on. “The opposing army appears to have started a new offensive campaign against us, under the Queen’s name.”

     Lyon glared and shook her head. “That’s horrible! How dare they do that to her…”

     Miakis shook her head and looked at them. “No, I think the Princess did this herself. She probably just really wants to see her brother!” Lyon was surprised at how she didn’t think of this, smiling.

     Lucretia immediately looked to Frey, eyes glimmering as a smile began to adorn her features. “Then why don’t we help her out with that?”

     With three separate groups put together to stave off the enemy forces, they went to sleep to prepare for the battle that was soon to come. The next morning, they immediately set out to an area just a short distance away from Sol-Falena, where Lymsleia and her forces would stand waiting. Roy and Zerase used their group to create a wedge between them while Kyle’s group would hold off Zahhak’s own.

     Frey, Lyon, Sialeeds, Miakis and their other team members took their stride onward to go after the Princess and take her back with them. If only they knew what was waiting for them…

     In front of them was someone they didn’t expect to stand in their way – Galleon. Lyon tried to bargain with him, to get him to stand down, but when the cards were put down on the table, both Frey and Galleon drew their weapons to fight him. Frey knew that if they could best him in battle, he would finally stand down and let them pass – he knew he wasn’t a man deluded by pride.

     After a long and strenuous battle, Galleon and his fellow guards were bested and taken down. A voice from behind him stopped him in his tracks, his weapon lowering itself immediately. When the time was right, Lymsleia came walking forward and began to make a run for Frey when he held his arms open, ready to hold her when she reached him. Unfortunately, Dolph was standing right behind Lyon, stabbing her in her lower back and Eris appearing from the side to try to attack her. Of course, pride got the best of the Dolph and he shoved her away, glaring at her. “Stay out of the way Erismar. This is my task – stand down.”

     Eris glared at him and hesitantly put her weapon away before Lyon stumbled into Frey’s body, Sialeeds grabbing Lym and holding her back as she fought to get away. “Let me go, Sialeeds!! Lyon is—“

     Sialeeds shook her head, staring at Dolph. “This wasn’t part of the plan.”

     Immediately he shook his head, smirking. “Injuring one of them will make it less likely that we’ll be pursued.”

     Sialeeds looked away from him, a faint sadness in her eyes. “That doesn’t justify your actions…” When Lymsleia continued to try to get away, Sialeeds only tightened her grip on the girl’s body before looking to Galleon. “Galleon, you’re better at patching people up than some doctors, aren’t you? Take a look at Lyon’s wounds, quickly!” He was quick to try and object, but Sialeeds glared at him. “Galleon, now!” With a nod he ran to Lyon as Frey held on to her, but before he could reach her, Sialeeds turned to Lym and gazed deep into her eyes and spoke. “I’m sorry Lym, but I’m going to have to take you back. Back to Sol-Falena.”

     Lym’s eyes widened and she shook her head. “What?”

     Miakis gave a distant look to Sialeeds, eyes filling with a bit of shock. “You’ve got to be joking…”

     Sialeeds shook her head in response to them, looking away from them. “You wouldn’t understand…” Before any of them could make a move against her, she raised her hand up to activate her Wind Rune, gusts blowing all around them as she used it to make her escape, Dolph doing the same in the midst of all the confusion.

     When the two were gone, Miakis stumbled forward before dropping to her knees, starting to cry. “Princess… Princess!!!”

     Frey lay Lyon down on the ground, Galleon leaning down to take a look at her wounds. “Her pulse is distant. We shouldn’t move her yet.”

     Miakis shook her head, closing her eyes. “What?! Then what are we supposed to do?! She’ll die…” As soon as she finished speaking, Frey’s hand began to glow as his Dawn Rune began to stabilize Lyon enough for them to move her. “What just happened? Your hand started glowing Prince!”

     Galleon was shocked as well, examining Lyon carefully before giving Frey a look. “Her pulse is back to normal. She’s been stabilized. We should move her back to safety before it’s too late.”

     With Lyon in the infirmary for the time being, unconscious and vulnerable, Miakis took on the role of being the Prince’s bodyguard until Lyon could reclaim her job. Having gotten a lead from Zweig when they confronted Zerase, he told them of another set of Ruins that would hopefully lead them to a new discovery about the powers of the Dawn Rune. They put together a group that would go out in search of these ruins, and ended up finding an old “acquaintance” of Zweig and Lorelai’s – Killey. They made their way through the rest of the ruins, discovering a new power of the rune.

     They went back to their castle, heading straight for the medical room where Lyon was being kept. Silva gave Frey a look of slight objection, but nodded. “I don’t like to resort to Runes unless absolutely necessary, but this seems to be our only option. Go ahead.”

     Frey raised his hand to activate his Dawn Rune, the light hovering over Lyon’s body before starting to heal her. She slowly opened her eyes, which caused Miakis to jump up and down with joy. “Oh thank goodness!! She’s saved!!”

     Lyon had to stay in bed to continue resting so that she could recover completely. Meanwhile, the rest of the group continued to overcome many obstacles that stood before them, gaining new alliances with people from places near and far, and even a couple of familiar faces – Belcoot and Marina.

* * *

     Eventually, the night before the final battle against Godwin’s forces came to them, and they all found themselves preparing for it in their own ways. Shigure was sitting outside with Georg, enjoying the feeling of the cool breeze on his body. “Do you think we’re gonna get her back tomorrow?”

     Georg shrugged his shoulders, soon looking down at him. “Well, that depends on you, Shigure. Are you prepared to do anything you have to in order to take her back?” Shigure gave him a look like he was out of his mind, Georg smiling a bit. “You have to be prepared for this. It’s not just a question of whether or not we get her back. You have to go into this ready to do whatever it takes. I’ve heard what you think of her – I know you really want to be by her side for the rest of your life to protect her. If that’s true, then I think you should go all out tomorrow like your life depends on it and do whatever you have to in order to get her back.”

     Shigure seemed to give the words deep thought, soon nodding. “I know. I just don’t want to screw it up. I was the one who wanted to stay by her side and protect her. You were given that job, but I chose to do so on my own… I can’t go in and not get her back now.”

     “Exactly; if there’s any hesitations, it could determine your fate on the battlefield before you even reach her. Make your decisions tonight, and make them final. Go out on that battlefield knowing exactly what you’re going to do, and don’t hesitate. Go out there being confident in your decisions, and being sure of yourself.”

     “I just really love her, y’know? I want to protect her like I do Sagiri. I don’t want her to have to stay with them anymore because she’s scared we’ll get hurt.”

     Georg nodded and turned Shigure’s head so that he could be sure he was at least paying full attention. “Uncover your eyes for me, Shigure, and look into my eyes.” Once he had done so, Georg gave him a very confident look. “Listen to me, Shigure. You can do this. If you really love her as much as you say you do, go out there tomorrow and show her how much you love her by taking them all down until she’s free.”

     Shigure smiled at him and stood up, nodding his head. “Thanks Georg. I’m gonna go get some sleep for tomorrow.”

* * *

     Finally, the last battle had come upon them. Frey’s forces took down those who stood in their way, and together they made their way to the town. They stormed into the Sun Palace, met face to face with Zahhak and Alenia, who were standing them down and ready to charge them.

     After a grueling battle, they both downed a bottle each of Raging Nostrum, which had their strength cranked up to the max. Even then they were defeated, and they both died on the floor.

     They stormed into the audience chamber, where Gizel stood waiting for them with his sword in hand and Lymsleia sitting on the throne behind him. “Well well, Your Royal Highness. It’s been a while. The last time we met was the engagement ceremony, I believe. I’m sorry I couldn’t invite you to the coronation ceremony. I’m sure you understand, given the… circumstances.”

     Miakis glared at him, threatening to charge at him. “Get away from the Princess!”

     “Why should I? I am the glorious Commander of the Queen’s Knights as well as her husband, after all.”

     “Then what do you plan to do with that sword?!”

     Lymsleia called out to Miakis, standing strong in her words. “Forget about that. Seize him!”

     Gizel smirked, looking down at her. “What if my master plan was murdering you in front of your beloved brother?”

     “A proud man like you committing such a rotten act? I don’t think so.”

     “My, my. Do you really take me so lightly?”

     “No, I don’t. If you had wanted to escape, you could have easily have done it by now; but you stayed with me instead. So, no matter what you say, despite your threats, I don’t think you ever really wanted to harm me.”

     “Oh? I might’ve just underestimated the woman I’m married to. Well, just as Her Majesty said, I chose to stay here. And the reason I did that was because I wanted to see you. It’s funny when you think about it. This country has been strangled by the noose of a tug of war between the royal family and the senators. Each trying so hard to do what they thought was right but their paths were so different. First, the late Queen and Ferid tried to change Falena. Then, Lord Barows got you on his side, and tried to change it yet again. Finally, with a difference of opinion, my father tried to change it. Now, it’s come to you leading a force of your own against me.” He gave Frey a look, putting a hold on the handle of his sword. “I may have lost in the end, but I’ve come too far to simply beg your forgiveness.”

     When he began to raise his sword even just a slight amount, Lymsleia ran to Miakis, who held her tightly. “Stop it! What’s the point of doing this now?!”

     Gizel shook his head, looking to her and then to Frey. “There is no point. It’s just that it’s inevitable. Your brother and I can never coexist.”

     Lyon shot a look of worry to Frey, who then drew his nun chucks out for a duel. Gizel smiled, taking a fighting stance against him. “I thought you’d see things my way. Until one of us falls, this war will never end!”

     After a grueling duel between the two, Gizel fell to the floor, coughing and taking shaky breaths. “I guess… I was no match for… for someone like you… I’m just sad that I won’t be able to see the kind of queen you’ll become…”

     Lymsleia knelt down in front of him, her voice growing soft and sad. “What- What are you saying?”

     “I want you to forgive me for being such a… a sore loser. But in the end, it wasn’t you who won. It was… Sialeeds…”

     Lymsleia slowly looked up, tears beginning to well up in her eyes and her body turning to Frey’s. He held her tightly as she began to weep and sob, her body holding tightly to his own as well; she was finally able to release her emotions to someone who could finally be there with her for good.

     Shigure ran in, frantic and Georg following right behind him. “Frey! We need your help! We found Eris! She’s in the prison. We can’t get into her holding cell!” Frey immediately stood up, taking heed to Georg’s words; he then ordered Miakis to take Lymsleia to her room until they were sure things were safe enough for them to be out freely in their castle.

     Together he, Shigure, Georg and Lyon took off for the Palace’s prison area, making their way through until they’d reached Eris’ holding cell. Frey unlocked the door with the key he’d retrieved from the Queen’s Chamber before leaving the audience chamber, Shigure running past him and up to Eris, who sat on the stone floor. “Eris! Are you alright? They didn’t hurt you, did they?” When she didn’t answer him, he began to grow nervous and scared, unsure of why she wouldn’t say anything. “Eris?”

     She slowly looked up into his eyes, her own bloodshot and black, body bruised and slightly bloody. “Shigure..? Georg?”

     Shigure was in disgust at the sight, but his arms held her close as he embraced her, using his broad shoulders to surround her in warmth. Immediately, she started to cry into his chest, his hand reaching up to hold the back of her head, body sitting down on the floor so that he could wrap his legs around her for added security. “It’s okay Eris. I’m here now. I won’t let them touch you. It’s over now. We’re going to stay here now.”

     Georg was worried about Eris, seeing her behavior and how Shigure had to hold her in order for her to even begin to calm down in the slightest. He immediately had Shigure pick her up and carry her upstairs to the room she’d been given before, following them closely and Lyon doing the same. Frey went back to Lymsleia’s room to see she and Miakis, letting them know everything was alright for them now.

     Having been laid down in bed, Georg sat down on the edge while Shigure sat down in the chair at the table. “Damn. What could they have done to her?”

     Shigure frowned before looking at Eris. “They probably tormented her, the fucking bastards…” He sighed and looked at Lyon, who returned his eye contact. “You think so too, don’t you?”

     Lyon gave him a nod, closing her eyes. “Yeah, I think so too. It’s all they did back when I was with them…”

     After Lyon eventually took her leave, Eris began to wake up from her slumber that had been brought on by the exhaustion of her sad outburst earlier. Shigure had nodded off in the chair while Georg was on the floor, watching over Eris closely. He leaned forward when he noticed her eyes begin to open, body sliding over to sit closer to her. “You’re awake. Are you feeling alright Eris? Shigure’s been worried sick about you. He couldn’t stay awake any longer and fell asleep in the chair.”

     Eris nodded and looked over at him, trying to sit up before wincing slightly in response to the pain that began to fill her body. “A-Ahh… I forgot they hit me there… They started doing so much to me it all just started running together in my head.” Georg frowned as she began to focus on Shigure completely. “He was worried about me?”

     Georg nodded and rubbed her head gently. “He was. Ever since you went back to Gizel and Dolph, he hasn’t stopped worrying about your safety and whether or not you would come back.” He paused for a moment as she looked up at him, a smile slowly forming on his face. “He really cares about you, y’know. He was willing to charge right into Stormfist by himself to get you back when he found out you’d gone back. He was ready to basically get himself killed to get you back, Eris. He really cares a lot about you. He wants to be by your side for the rest of your life.”

     Eris’ eyes brightened and made contact with Georg’s own, his hand rubbing her head once more. “He does?”

     He nodded and looked back to Shigure’s sleeping form in the chair. “He does. You should talk to him about it when he wakes up. I’m going to head back downstairs and see if they need any help with things. Listen – take it easy in here and wait for him to wake up. If you need anything before he does, call for the attendants outside of your room and have them come get me, alright?” She gave him a short nod before he left the room, leaving her alone with a sleeping Shigure.

     He woke up within an hour of Georg leaving, his eyes slowly gazing over to Eris to see her wide awake. “E-Eris; you’re awake. How are you feeling?”

     “I’m feeling a little better now. I heard you were worried about me.”

     Shigure’s eyes stopped in a distant stare before he stood up and walked over to sit on the floor where he could be closer to her. “I was. You could have said something, Eris… We would have done anything we could have to help you. I was so worried when I found out you’d gone back to them… I wanted nothing more than to go in to get you back. When Lymsleia finally gave word of her plans to take offensive action against us in order to see Frey again, I thought we’d finally get you back. Then you disappeared with Sialeeds and Dolph, and you were gone again. When we finally got to this battle against Gizel, I came ready to do anything to get you back this time. I wasn’t going to let you fall out of my reach again. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, Eris. I’m ready to do anything I can to protect you and make you happy.”

     Eris gazed at him with longing eyes, hanging on his ever word as he spoke to her in such a caring manner, which was something new for him. “Shigure…”

     He continued, leaning closer to her face. “Eris, I’m going to stay by your side, no matter what. I’m ready to die for you, to take a sword for you. I love you.” He slowly leaned down to kiss her lips ever-so-gently, closing his eyes and holding her sides gently. When he lifted himself back up, he saw her smiling up at him.

     “I love you too, Shigure. I’m sorry I worried you… I won’t do it again. I promise.”

     “Good.”

* * *

     Time came and went, their final battle passing them by as they reclaimed the Sun Rune and returned the country to its once-peaceful state. Life in the Sun Palace had settled down to a normal pace again, and Frey had taken the spot as the new Commander of the Queen’s Knights, Lyon remaining at his side to become a full-fledged Queen’s Knight. Eris rose to do the same, Shigure cheering her on from the sidelines and giving her whatever critiques he could to help her succeed.

     All of a sudden, a surprise wedding was announced for Shigure and Eris, Georg and Frey chosen as the best men – Lymsleia, Lyon and Miakis were chosen as the bridesmaids, standing by their sides as the two were wed in a glorious ceremony with their comrades all standing beside them before choosing to all part their own ways to continue their lives as they saw fit.


	3. The After-life

**Chapter Three**

**The After-Life**

* * *

     Shigure and Eris spent their life wed to each other in peace and happiness, remaining in the Sun Palace to continue their lives with the Queen’s Knights, Frey and Lymsleia. Eventually, by the time Eris had turned 26 and Shigure 30, they gave birth to a beautiful set of twins – a boy and a girl. They spent a while deciding on the names, and eventually decided upon something that was a bit unexpected but meaningful to them. The boy’s name was decided to be a play on Georg and Eris’ names – Geris. The girl’s name turned out to be a play on Shigure and Eris’ names as well – Seris. The years passed them by; Geris and Seris grew into toddlers, children, teenagers, and were soon training to become Queen’s Knights themselves.

     Lymsleia would eventually marry a man that was out of left field; his father’s passing left him a more humble man, and began to mold him into a more calm and collected person that was fitting for a Queen of Falena - it was none other than Euram Barows himself. After a brief discussion with Frey, he began to approve of Euram as a potential husband for his sister. He would take Frey’s place as Commander of the Queen’s Knights, Frey reclaiming his role as the Prince. After some time had passed, they had a child within a couple of months of Eris and Shigure having their own – a beautiful baby girl, who was destined to become the next queen when Lym would eventually pass on.

     The couple would name their baby girl after both Lymsleia and her mother Arshtat – Arsleia. She grew up to have beautiful, fair skin, eyes blue like Arshtat’s. Her hair was long, a browned-blonde, curly at the bottom; her beauty was far beyond the description of words. She grew up alongside Seris and Geris, starting at age six to begin her studies which would prepare her for her future role as Queen.

* * *

     Soon they were age sixteen, and the time had come for Arsleia’s Sacred Games. There a huge pool of competitors – Belcoot and Marina’s son, Alexander. Toma, from Lordlake was a fierce competitor in the mix as well. Amongst others, a mysterious man by the name of Zera was coming in as well – nobody knew that much about him; where he came from, who exactly he was, or what his story was.

     Of course, as they did so long ago, Frey, Lyon and Miakis took off from the Sun Palace to head to the Senate – they wanted to be nosy once again and figure out the candidates for the Sacred Games; the list of men who would be Arsleia’s future husband. Lyon’s eyes gazed over the list, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “Miakis, Frey – do you guys remember when we all came out here the last time to do this? Sialeeds, Lym, Kyle and Georg came with us. It was so much fun.”

     Miakis smiled and nodded her head, soon making an exclamation about Toma’s name on the list. “Oh, looks guys! Toma’s gonna be competing this year! I’m so excited to see him out there.”

     Frey then pointed out Belcoot and Marina’s son. “Alexander is in it this year too. This is going to be an interesting mix. I think the only one I’m really curious about is Zera. There’s not a lot of information on him.”

     As they speculated who he could be, Miakis made a rather interesting comment about the boy in question. “Y’know, his name is a lot like that crazy lady in black’s name!”

     Lyon cocked an eyebrow, nodding. “Do you think they could somehow be related?”

     Miakis shook her head vigorously, eyes closing in thought. “No way; there’s no way she would have those sorts of relations with anybody! She’s crazy!”

* * *

     Soon, the day of Arsleia’s Sacred Games had come upon them, and they were gathered in Stormfist for the great event. Belcoot, Marina and Goesch were in attendance, proudly rooting for Alexander and Toma. In three chairs sat Eris, Shigure, Seris and Geris; the next three over were for Arsleia, Lymsleia and Euram.

     Before the games would officially start, Euram would stand up to have a speech. “Welcome to this year’s Sacred Games for our princess, Arsleia! Let there be fair competition under her name!” He would give a nod to Lymsleia, who would stand forward to speak.

     “Thank you all for coming to show your strength for our daughter. I would like these games to be dedicated to my mother and father – Arshtat and Ferid. Without them, we wouldn’t have been able to continue this process today. They had a plan and we were all able to anticipate the chaos that arose back then. Fight not only for those here and Arsleia, but for Arshtat and Ferid as well! Show them how hard we’re working to keep this country alive and thriving!”

     Lymsleia watched intently as the gladiators and fighters were defeated and as some succeeded. “I remember when we all watched my Sacred Games. Belcoot wanted to come in and be the good guy – then he ended up saving Marina and swept her off of her feet. To be fully honest, I heard about what happened from Miakis when I turned sixteen. She decided I was old enough to know; so I ended up hearing about the situation with Marina and the Dark Arcanum, and also about Dolph and Nether Gate. Lyon, I never got the opportunity, but thank you for being so quick to warn mother and father of the potential danger in the situation. We couldn’t have possibly come out over Nether Gate had you not warned them.”

     Lyon was a bit taken aback by the sudden gratitude, but she nodded her head and greeted their once young Princess with a smile. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”

     Sitting in the audience was a face all too familiar to Eris, her eyes narrowing as she started staring blankly in their general direction. Shigure had turned to her to ask her a question, but was taken by surprise when he noticed her stare. “Eris? What’s up?”

     Her eyes remained focused on the face in the distance, her head shaking as she stood up and grew paranoid. “No… I-It can’t be him. There’s no way it’s him…”

     Shigure was confused, Lyon as well – they were trying to figure out what had suddenly shaken Eris to the point of being near hysterics. “Eris, calm down. What’s wrong?” Lyon tried to get her attention, and without even answering the question Eris dropped to her knees and curled up on the floor of the Royal Family’s seating area. “Eris!” Lyon knelt down to look into her eyes, which were filled with fear. “Eris, talk to me. What’s wrong?”

     Eris finally focused on Lyon, her eyes starting to well up with tears as she shook her head. “That man in the audience… He’s the master of Nether Gate…”

     Shigure’s eyes widened as he looked back in the direction of the man, where Eris had been looking, but he didn’t see anyone who matched the looks of the man he remembered from his past. “What? Eris, there’s nobody over there that looks like him… Are you sure?”

     Eris stood up slowly, eyes gazing back over to see that the man had indeed left. “He’s not there anymore…”

     Lymsleia immediately waved her hand, looking directly at Eris. “Eris, dear; sit back down. We can watch the games for now, right? If anything suspicious happens, one of the guards of the castle will certainly relay it to us. For now, relax.”

     Eris finally began to calm herself down, nodding her head and hesitantly sitting back in her seat. Geris and Seris were confused as to why their mother was acting so strangely.

     Arsleia was gazing through the coliseum audience, eyes deeply focused and darting everywhere. She seemed to be trying to see something, and she could see a man dressed in suspiciously conversing with others dressed in a similar fashion. “Mother, look over there – this looks… suspicious. I wish to have a guard investigate them immediately.”

     Lymsleia caught sight of the group, nodding her head as she turned around in her chair to speak to the guard behind them, but her eyes widened as she noticed he was limp on the ground. Immediately she stood up, walking to him and kneeling down – as soon as her fingers passed over his wrist, she shook her head; the guard was dead. “Something’s wrong.”

     Lyon was confused until she saw the man on the ground, her eyes widening. The games appeared to have halted when they realized that Lymsleia and her daughter were distracted by something rather important. Euram stood to his feet and yelled out as loud as he could muster. “Stop the games! We require the medical staff to report up here, immediately!”

     Lymsleia looked over to Shigure, her eyes then moving to look at Eris, her daughter, Frey and Lyon. “All six of you; please go investigate this immediately. Something’s clearly wrong here – we needn’t waste another moment out here until we’re sure all of the people here are safe.” She then turned her attention to Miakis. “Miakis; please go out to the audience and evacuate them to the inn in town. Make sure they don’t get hurt. Geris; go with her.”

     Miakis ran inside and headed out to the audience seating with Frey and Geris, the three working quickly to evacuate all of the nobles and townspeople into town.

     Lyon, Shigure, Eris and Seris all headed out to where the group had last been spotted, one of the guards catching sight of the four. “Excuse me, Eris! The group headed into town. They threatened to have me put in the prison if I told anyone, but I don’t want our townspeople getting hurt. They said something about heading off to the back alley near some sort of entrance to some underground tunnels.”

     Frey, Lyon and Eris all made eye contact with each other, thanking the guard for his bravery before departing for the town. They quickly made their way to the entrance of the underground passage, which would soon lead them to a group running through to get into the prison.

     Before the group could get out ahead of Eris’ group of four, they found themselves trapped at a dead end and being approached by said four. Shigure yelled at them, stopping them in their tracks. “Stop where you are! Who the hell are you?!”

     Suddenly, a figure emerged from the secret door to the prison, looking into Eris’ eyes, Shigure’s, and finally Lyon’s. “Why, hello there. It’s been so long since we all met face-to-face, hasn’t it? Dear Eris… You didn’t tell on my presence to your “family”, did you? What a shame. You should have known better than that. You think I didn’t notice your reaction to me? You could see it from a mile away, sweetheart.”

     Lyon was in shock, hand moving to grasp at her weapon. “Tell your group to stand down immediately and nobody is going to get hurt.”

     The man smirked at her, shaking his head. “Just why would we do something like that? You seem to have forgotten who exactly I am, Mismar.”

     Shigure turned his head and looked at Lyon, cocking an eyebrow. “Mismar? Lyon, who the hell…”

     Lyon shook her head, keeping her eyes locked on the older man ahead of them. “That was my name back in Nether Gate.” She glared at the man, hand tightening its firm hold on the handle of her sword. “Back down, now. We know who you are, and you won’t get away with your dirty tactics again. We know how to combat your kind.”

     “Oh, do you? You seem to be forgetting what we’re known for; and who are all of you to attempt to stop us? Right about now, your precious Queen is getting drugged and ready to kill the whole town with her power. Are you even ready for that kind of monstrosity; that sort of terror?”

     Frey’s eyes widened, body charging toward the man. “What the hell are you talking about? What are they doing to Lym?!”

     The man simply laughed, stepping back toward the door. “You can chase me down all you want; it won’t stop her death.” With that one comment left hanging in the air, the group vanished through the prison door.

     Frey yelled at them, turned his head to Lyon. “Why are you all just standing there?! We need to go after them!”

     Lyon shook her head, looking deep into his eyes. “Frey, what if he’s telling the truth? Lym might be in danger right now. We need to go find her, right now!”

     With that, the group of four began to run back the way they came, making their way back toward the castle with a newly-found haste. They found themselves in the hallway upstairs, face-to-face with a darkly-clothed man trying to force Lym into drinking a suspicious liquid; Lyon immediately knew that it was Raging Nostrum.

     At long last, Miakis had come back to the group, standing behind them and witnessing a man getting rough with Lym. She spared no expense in trying to separate the two, her voice yelling out. “Get away from her!! You’ll have to go through me if you want to kill her!!”

     Without a second of hesitation, Miakis finally took hold of the bottle from the man and downed it, Lyon yelling out and running forward as if to stop her. “Miakis, no!!!”

     Panting and gasping, Miakis held her hand out toward the group, backing away as the man fled through the back of the hall for the seating area. “F-Fight me!! I-… If I have to die to protect Her Majesty, so be it!” Her pants and gasps turned into growls, eyes growing black as could be as she drew her blades and stood against the group.

     Lymsleia ran to Miakis, starting to cry. “Miakis!! Stop this right now!!”

     Lyon grabbed Lym and shoved her behind the entire group, Frey hesitantly drawing out his nunchakus. “Lym… I’m sorry. I don’t want to do this.” Lyon’s eyes widened as she watched him prepare to fight Miakis, who was charging straight for him.

     Clangs and thuds sounded throughout the hall, blades clashing with nunchakus. Both Miakis and Frey took hits and blows to their bodies, staggering but soon regaining their composure and facing each other with a newly revived vigor.

     It was then that Frey seemed to slow down slightly, recalling his memory of the duel he had with Miakis so long ago back at Doraat Fortress.

_“If you want me to get out of your way, you’re just going to have to defeat me!!”_

_“Prince, I’m sorry. I… I can’t protect the princess anymore…”_

     Miakis swung her blades at him ferociously, scarring his face and creating a gash on his shoulder. “Grr… Rraahhh!!!!” This caused him to stagger as he simply stared at her, eyes void of emotion and blank.

     Lyon had to tighten her hold on Lymsleia as she fought to attempt to rescue her brother, eyes closing tightly as she stood her ground. “No Lym!! You can’t get in the way; she’ll just kill you!!” Lymsleia’s eyes would only widen with fear as she began to stand still, almost frozen with the realization of what was at stake, what could happen, what was going to happen to her former bodyguard. It was after Lyon opened her eyes for a brief moment that she noticed Lymsleia’s eyes welling up with tears, and she looked her in the eyes calmly. “Lym, I know. This is our reality… You have to see this. You shouldn’t have to, but you do. It’s the only way you’ll truly understand what danger our country is in because of Nether Gate…”

     Lymsleia watched as the battle begrudgingly continued on, Frey getting his back side handed to him by his fellow knight, who was in a rage from a drug he’d hoped his comrades would never come into contact with in this sort of way. Lymsleia finally called out to him, unable to watch him get beat up this way any longer. “Brother!! Do something; stand up for yourself!! Please…!!”

     Frey registered her voice, finally gathering his strength and regaining his ability to properly block Miakis’ attacks. Although his face, shoulder and arms were scarred and bleeding, he fought for his life to protect his knights and sister, starting to yell out in efforts never before seen from him. “Gaah!!! I don’t care if it’s the drug doing this to you; you won’t hurt my sister!!!”

     Miakis swung her arms at him in a frantic manner as she felt the drug’s effects coming to a close; she knew she had to work fast to get in a kill. “Must… kill!!!”

     Frey brought his nunchakus up and trapped her blades in between the two wooden sticks on the end, foot coming up and kicking her in the gut with all of the force he could muster.

     Miakis staggered back, hands dropping her blades as she gripped her stomach, voice growling out in pain. She knelt down to the floor, coughing up a bit of blood as she glared up into Frey’s eyes. Her body slowly slid down onto the floor, twitching madly as the drug started to begin its killing process. Before even a moment had passed, her body was lying limp on the floor, which caused Lymsleia to break free of Lyon’s hold on her and run forward to kneel down beside Miakis.

     Lymsleia grabbed her shoulder and began to shake her body frantically, eyes welling up with tears as she shook her head. “Miakis, no!! Say something to me, Miakis; please!!”

     Frey closed his eyes and dropped his nunchakus on the floor, silent as he slowly opened his eyes and focused his gaze on his sister, who was crying hysterically over Miakis’ now dead body. Lyon and Eris began to cry silently as well, Shigure closing his eyes and saying a silent prayer for the stars to watch over Miakis.

* * *

     At the very moment her eyes opened, she was beginning to grow hyper aware of the fact that her heart was pounding and chest was heaving as she fought to catch her breath in the midst of her panicked awakening. Arsleia sat up hastily, eyes darting around the room before she looked over to see Miakis sound asleep in the bed next to her own. A deep sigh of relief left her lungs as she could see the bodyguard smiling in her sleep, her chest rising and falling with every breath she took; she was alive.

     She took notice to the rising sun outside, her feet softly hitting the floor as she stretched her arms above her head. She immediately made her way to her mother’s room, knocking on the door. “Mom; it’s me.”

     Lymsleia stood up out of the chair she was comfortably sitting in to read her book, her stride leading her to the door to open it. “Good morning Arsleia. How did you sleep, dear?”

     Arsleia walked into the room, closing the door behind her as she frowned. “I had a nightmare. Some group of people showed up to the games dressed like those people who were spoken about from Nether Gate a long time ago. They tried to drug you with Raging Nostrum but Miakis stopped the guy and drank it herself. She fought with Frey until the drug killed her… That’s when I woke up.”

     Lymsleia frowned, her eyes looking to Euram before she spoke. “You’ve definitely had a good track record for your dreams foreshadowing things to come. It just might be your Rune, Arsleia – it would most certainly make sense given the nature of it. Don’t worry though, dear. We’ll take as many precautions as we can to ensure things don’t turn sour. I won’t let anything happen that isn’t beyond my control, Arsleia. Your father will help too. Today’s the big day though. Go get yourself ready; the gladiators are already beginning their preparations and the spectators are starting to arrive.”

     Arsleia nodded, taking her leave to go back to her room. She got herself dressed in her normal attire, soon heading outside to sit in the royal seating area just outside on the balcony. She found Miakis, Lyon, Frey, the rest of the Queen’s Knights, Eris, Shigure and their children, plus her mother and father there; she took her seat in between Frey and her mother, smiling with excitement and optimism that the games would turn out better than in her nightmare.

     The games began without a hitch – smooth sailing as Alexander and Toma went up against their respective opponents, winning each match with ease. There was another competitor who swiftly took down his enemies, dressed all in black – the announcer soon revealed his identity. “The winner is, Zera!!”

     Soon, the day turned into evening and the announcer called out loudly – “This marks the end of the first round! Round 2, match ten will begin tomorrow morning!”

     As the spectators left and gladiators returned to their holding areas, the royal family all returned to their rooms to relax before a dinner would be prepared for them. It passed by them in peace; soon, they were all headed to their rooms to relax.

     Before Arsleia could even open her door, Lymsleia approached her and led her to her own room. She shut the door, letting her daughter see that Eris, Shigure were there and had Geris and Seris with them. Belcoot and Marina were there as well, Alexander by their side. Toma was in attendance, alongside Miakis, Lyon and Frey. “Arsleia, I’ve gathered our strongest resources inside of our forces here; they’re going to help. I’ve already taken the liberty of explaining your dream to them – they’re all ready to help us ensure the safety of both our family and the spectators.”

     Arsleia nodded her head, taking a seat at the table by the window. “We can’t let them lay a finger on any of us. However, if we try to do anything about it directly, they’re going to take notice; it’ll send everyone into a frenzy around the town too.”

     Euram looked over at her, specifically at the rune on her forehead before making eye contact with her. “That’s right. We’ll simply have to sit back and observe. We can’t let anybody know that we’re onto them – they’re already watching us if your dream is correct, Arsleia. We have to be careful now more than ever.”

     Frey stood up off of the bed, stretching his arms a bit. “Why don’t we simply have the guards station themselves a bit more throughout the crowds? It’s something subtle, but at least it’ll provide a bit of a cushion between us. What do you think Lym?”

     “That’s a good idea, but I’m scared they might even suspect we know something if we do something as simple as that. Aside from that… I may be the queen of this country, but I can’t throw my power around senselessly and order guards that don’t even belong to my own town. Ultimately, their orders would have to come from the proprietor and proprietress of the inn, and I would rather not get them involved in this ordeal. We should simply go about the day tomorrow as normal; let them suspect absolutely nothing of us. If they grow suspicious that we know even the smallest thing, they will spare no expense in approaching us.”

     Shigure gave an agreement, eyes looking to Frey. “She’s right Frey. If they really are associated with Nether Gate, we have to exert the utmost caution while acting as we normally would. You’ve not seen even half of their wrath, I’m afraid.”

     Lymsleia stepped forward, eyes gazing over everyone before looking out of the window in the darkness. “It’s settled then. We carry on as normal tomorrow and the days afterward – we simply pretend nothing is going on.” Without another moment’s notice, she yawned a bit and blinked her eyes heavily. “Everyone, you may now be excused to your rooms. Get plenty of rest for the continuation of the games tomorrow.”

* * *

     During the games, Arsleia nonchalantly would gaze through the crowds as any other spectator would; her eyes indeed crossed over the figure that was presented to her in her dream as the leader of Nether Gate, as pointed out by Eris. She simply turned her attention back to the matches that continued in the pit of the arena, cheering and clapping her hands with excitement abound.

     As the leader dressed in black slid from his chair, one of the guards would walk out of a door and smiling at his fellow guard who stretched his arms out with a small yawn. “Alright man. I’ve got it from here; go take your break.”

     The freshly excused guard would make his way upstairs to the balcony, heading out to speak with Arsleia. He would make gestures that would make it look as if he were exerting great interest in the gladiators participating in the matches; in reality, he was giving her the information that the master had already moved to begin executing his plans.

     Eventually, the conclusion of the second round of the games had approached them, and without any hesitation they all made their way inside to relax. Once in the privacy of Lymsleia and Euram’s room, all of the members gathered inside the night before were present once again. Arsleia was visibly nervous; she knew that according to her dream, the time was soon approaching them where the group would try to advance on them.

     Euram stood up and placed his arms around his teenage daughter, rubbing her head before backing away to look into her eyes. “Arsleia, dear; you have to calm yourself immediately. If it is indeed almost time, you won’t be able to properly make any decisions like this.” He sighed, kissing her forehead tenderly. “It’ll be alright, Arsleia; I promise.”

     This brought a small smile to her lips, her head resting against his own for a brief few seconds before she could hear suspicious voices outside in the hallway. She swiftly stood up, eyes darting to the door and Euram tightening his hold on her. “Arsleia, go hide in the back room. Make yourself safe.” Without any hesitation whatsoever, she ran to the back and hid behind several boxes that were stacked in the corner.

     Miakis stood at the door, listening carefully; she could hear threats and words of danger being thrown about. She looked back at Euram and Lymsleia, her eyes narrowing just a slight amount. “It’s time, Lym.”

     “I know.”

     Frey and Lyon made their way out into the hall, meeting the master of Nether Gate face to face.

     The older man’s lips curled up into a smirk, eyes darting to look over into Lyon’s. “Why, hello there Mismar. It’s been far too long since our last meeting… I most certainly do hope you’re doing well.”

     Lyon glared at him, placing a hand to the handle of her sword. “Back off! What business do you have here at this time of day?!”

     The man shook his head, closing his eyes before waving a hand to the fellow members behind him. “I’m simply doing my job, young one.” His eyes made contact with Frey’s own this time, smiling. “Making sure this world has not a single trace left of the Falenan Royal Family.”

     Lyon stood in front of Frey, glaring at the group. “Over my dead body!” She charged forward, removing her sword from its sheath and swinging it at her former master.

     His hand simply grabbed it and yanked it from her hands, using his other hand to grab her wrist and twist her around. He held her in place with her sword to her neck, smiling softly. “Oh Mismar… You never were smart enough to outsmart me. You always failed to impress me.” He began to pull the sword enough to nearly break her skin, his words beginning to take on a rather daunting tone. “Now look at you; you’re about to die.”

     Soon after this was said, Miakis took it as her cue to exit the room with Eris and Shigure, Lymsleia and Euram following suit.

     Lymsleia’s voice was the first to speak, her eyes simply glaring into the older man’s own. “Unhand her, you foul human being. Have you no honor?”

     “What honor? Who needs honor when you have all the money and power the world could offer in your hands?!”

     While they were engaged in this short-lived conversation, other members rose from the door to the balcony outside, grabbing Eris and Shigure and knocking them unconscious using a blow to the head. They then grabbed Frey by the neck and waist, confining him and allowing them to do their bidding with him.

     Lymsleia turned around and began to exclaim in utter shock, eyes wide open. “Let go of my brother!!” She started to run forward, but Miakis grabbed her and stopped her in her tracks.

     “Lym, don’t!”

     “But Miakis!!”

     As they started to choke Frey, the master began to pull the sword into Lyon’s neck enough to break the skin and cause blood to ooze out. Her voice whimpered out in soft cries of pain, body beginning to squirm and writhe against the other male’s own. This brought a smile to his face; a chaotic, maniacal smile. “Oh goodness!! Music to my ears… Make it again, dearest Mismar; again and again!!”

     Lymsleia was caught between a rock and a hard place; Miakis was holding her back while her own Queen’s Knight and brother were being attacked. It saddened and angered her to no extent; her emotions knew no boundaries by then. She glared back at the older man, then at the two attacking her brother, voice yelling at them. “Get away from them!!”

     The master used his free hand to swing his hand sharply at Miakis’ head, knocking her unconscious as well and rendering Lymsleia as vulnerable as a bug versus someone’s shoe. As the attackers grew more violent, she finally cried out to them. “K-Kill me!! Let them go! Kill me instead; please!”

     The master cocked an eyebrow, smirking at her. “Oh? You’re sacrificing yourself to us? Very well. Rai, give her the Nostrum.”

     Frey choked out words to his sister, begging her to think first. “Ly- ah- uk..!! Stop! Th- un!- think about this first!”

     Lyon whimpered out to her, closing her eyes. “Lym… sleia; he’s right. The Sun Rune... If-” She gasped in pain, whimpering softly. “If you drink that, you… you might destroy everything with it…”

     Lymsleia nodded, closing her eyes. “I know. That’s why I have Arsleia. Her Rune will protect at least all of you from it… Frey; I love you. Please protect her for me… She’s our next Queen of Falena. Protect her with your life, for me.”

     Frey nodded his head to her, his voice letting sounds of his lungs slowly running out of oxygen. “I-ah-huh..!! I will…”

     Lymsleia faced the man the master had addressed as Rai, looking him in the eyes deeply. With hesitance, she took hold of the bottle of Raging Nostrum, sighing softly with regret and sadness. She pulled the cap off of the bottle, downing the whole thing in one swig; she wanted to get it over with.

     As ferocious growls started to sound throughout the hall, Arsleia was unsure of what exactly was happening outside – she could feel a heat beginning to grow. Euram ran outside, noticing that his daughter was right behind him. “Arsleia, no; go back inside!”

     She refused, seeing her mother started to get affected by the drug that she was being forced to drink in her dream. Her eyes welled up with tears as she cried out to her, sobbing. “M-Mom, no!!”

     Shigure and Eris ran out into the hallway, in awe of the situation unfolding in front of them, his arms around Eris’ body for protection.

     Immediately, Lymsleia threw her power into the two attacking her brother and the master slicing Lyon’s neck; they were killed instantly. She started creating an orb of power that originated from the Sun Rune, a maniacal, growling laugh leaving her chest all the while.

     Frey dropped to his knees, coughing as he fought to regain his breath. His eyes soon looked up to watch Lymsleia, shaking his head and tears welling up in his eyes. “Ahh… Lym…”

     Soon, a man dressed in black stepped in, glaring at Lymsleia. “Stop this immediately!!” His hand waved and her Rune’s power was being held back by a gracious amount, Arsleia looking back at him.

     “You; you’re the one who won the last match of round one! Zera, was it?”

     “Yes. My mother was Zerase. I inherited her Star Rune after she passed on from this life. Are you simply going to stand there in fear? You have to activate your Rune to create the barrier around us all.” Then he said something that reminded Frey of Zerase instantly, which followed his witness to Arsleia’s hesitance. “Unless you want to die, do as you’re told!!”

     Arsleia finally gathered her courage and raised her hands out from her sides, spread like a bird in flight. A clear barrier began to form around all of them, her eyes looking over at Frey. “Use the Dawn Rune and heal Lyon’s wounds; quickly Frey!”

     He rose to his feet and ran to Lyon’s side, raising his hand up; this caused a blue light to glow around it, which began to seal the wound on her neck. She looked up into Frey’s eyes, smiling at him. “Thank you, Prince.”

     Together, Arsleia and Zera staved off Lymsleia’s power, protecting all of them inside to the best of their abilities. Before long, Lymsleia fell to the floor, twitching madly and the glow of the Sun Rune beginning to fade.

     Frey slowly stood to his feet, eyes focused on her body with a blank expression on his face. “Lym?” He made his way to her, kneeling down beside her and gently shaking her. “L-Lym, stop it; this isn’t funny anymore. C’mon, get up..! I know this is what you do to play tricks on me… You used to do it to me all the time when we were younger…”

     Her body refused to regain life within it, and his eyes began to well up with tears as he started to shake her harder. “L-Lym!! Wake up!” The motions of his body shaking her own were causing the tears to fall from his eyes and onto her body, Lyon standing up and frowning as she watched him.

     “Prince, please stop. She’s-”

     Frey cut her off, yelling at her sorrowfully and angrily. “No! Shut up Lyon! I won’t let you say it!!” His motions were beginning to slow as he watched her body limply react to his movements, his eyes now overflowing with tears. “Lym, no. Please…!!”

     Lyon grabbed him by the shoulders, standing him up and holding him tightly, his body heaving and shaking with every sob, breath and hiccup that came from his lips. “Prince, I know… It’ll be okay, I promise.”

     Euram was standing in silence, holding Arsleia as she silently began to cry as well, her tears wetting his shirt. “Arsleia… It’ll all be okay; I promise.” He felt her body close the small gap between them when she saw the Sun Rune releasing itself from Lymsleia’s forehead; it was returning to the Sealed Room back at the Sun Palace.

     Miakis woke up later that evening, eyes wearily looking around the room – they landed on a familiar face she didn’t expect to be there; Georg. “G-Georg? What are you doing here? I thought you’d traveled up to the North.”

     He nodded, looking into Miakis’ eyes. “I did, but I heard Arsleia’s games were coming so I made arrangements to come back as soon as I could.”

     Miakis went to sit up, stretching her neck a bit by tilting her head to the left and then the right. “Where’s Lym? I gotta go see her and make sure she’s okay.”

     Georg sighed, reaching his hand out to gently hold Miakis’ shoulder to stop her. “Miakis… Lym isn’t… She’s- She’s dead, Miakis.” The reaction he received wasn’t anything short of predictable, and it twisted his heart and crushed it; he wasn’t used to seeing such a distraught emotion coming from his fellow knight.

     Miakis’ eyes widened and began to well up with tears, her body hunching over as she began to breathe in a shaky manner. “What? But we- N-No…”

     “I’m sorry Miakis. If I had known this was going to happen, I’d have gotten here sooner…”

     Miakis began to weep, her chest heaving as she sobbed heavily and felt the tears rush down her cheeks.

     Georg moved to sit on the bed, his arms wrapping around Miakis’ body and holding her tightly, his hand placing itself on the back of her head to hold it close to his chest. “Miakis… I’m sorry. I wish I had gotten here sooner. Maybe if I had then we wouldn’t be in this situation right now…”

     She took a shaky breath, her eyes opening to look at the wall beside them as she listened to Georg’s words.

     “When I was a youth, my master taught me something – a very valuable lesson. Listen closely to my words, Miakis.” When he felt her nod her head, he continued. “Life only ever throws obstacles in our way that we’re built to handle. It may seem hard now, but you can overcome this, Miakis. If you couldn’t, this wouldn’t have been thrown in your way.” He paused, taking in a small breath as he pulled away to look her in the eyes. “You’re incredibly strong, Miakis. You can do this.”

     She nodded her head to him, smiling as he moved his thumbs along either side of her face to wipe away her tears. “Thank you Georg. I’ll remember that forever.”

* * *

     The days following Lymsleia’s death involved the family and friends returning to Sol Falena and the Sun Palace, holding a burial ceremony for her in the garden just outside the palace itself. Arsleia was soon doing alright following her mother’s passing, as was Euram.

     The only one who didn’t seem to be recovering well was Frey. He locked himself away in his room, refusing to leave for anything; he forced his attendants to bring his meals to him, in the instance that he would actually choose to eat them. He endured countless sleepless nights, and when he would sleep, he’d wake up crying from a dream involving Lymsleia.

     Lyon spent her days worrying for his mental health, and eventually had to start pleading with him to live another day. Lymsleia’s death affected him more than just with sadness – he often times spent night after night wishing he would die so he could be reunited with Sialeeds, Arshtat, Ferid and his sister.

     Of course, an unsuspecting guest managed to get inside of Frey’s room; from outside, of course. Shigure was suddenly sitting on the foot of his bed, looking Frey in the eyes. “Frey, you have to keep going. Is your direct bloodline just going to be over because you lost them? You still have duties to attend to; are you just going to give up?” He received but a single stare from Frey, who was silent and almost emotionless in the face. “Listen to me, Frey. You can’t just give up everything now; what about Eris? She still needs you; Lyon too.”

     When Frey still refused to answer Shigure, he noticed the other male get exceptionally close to him while he continued to lie on his bed.

     Shigure sat directly beside Frey, starting to unbutton his shirt; soon, the deep scar on his chest was revealed to the prince. “Look at this scar, Frey. This is what happens when you let Nether Gate win against you. Are you sure you want to endure this pain?”

     Finally, Frey spoke but a single thing to him, for the first time in months. “How did that happen?”

     Shigure looked into Frey’s eyes, sighing softly. “They tortured me in one of the most inhumane ways possible; they fucked with my heart. Rather, they replaced it. One of their older members at the time was of no further use to them, so they took his heart out of his body to kill him; they put it inside of me. Of course, there was a catch to it. His heart was weak and filled to the brim with illnesses that would slowly but surely kill whoever it was inside of; illnesses Nether Gate caused and created to weed out their weaker members when no longer of use. They decided that slowly killing me off would be the best way to torture me in the end, no matter how much they decided to threaten Sagiri.”

     “Have you told Eris…?”

     “No. I’m not sure how I should yet either. I don’t know how to tell Geris and Seris yet, to be honest. I don’t want to upset them, and I’ve thought of countless ways I could disguise it to make it look as if something external killed me. Death by blade on the battlefield, Raging Nostrum, Nether Gate… Anything to keep them from finding out what Nether Gate did to me when I was ten. I don’t want to imagine what Lyon or Eris would do if they found out; they’d do anything to get back at Nether Gate. Eris especially would, so I’ve been extra cautious to keep it from her.”

     Frey slowly sat up, looking into Shigure’s eyes and frowning. “You have to tell them. They deserve to know; all five of them. That’s your former Nether Gate member and your family.”

     “I know. I just don’t want them to do anything irrational once they find out.”

     “Then why don’t we have Georg stand in? I’ll compromise with you, Shigure. If you help me bounce back from this reclusive state, I’ll get Georg to help you tell them.”

     Shigure gave the idea some thought before nodding his head, smiling a bit. “Alright; no more hiding for either of us.”

     Frey smiled back at him, standing to his feet. “Alright; let’s go find Georg.”

     The two of them left Frey’s room to go find Georg, who was in alone in the Guard Room’s back room; he was deep in thought, it seemed. When he heard the door open, his head turned and he held a surprised look on his face when he noticed Frey was there as well. “Hey, you two. What’s going on?”

     Frey looked to Shigure, who was hesitating; it was obvious to Frey, given the situation. “Shigure had something to tell you so he could have a bit of help explaining something to his family; isn’t that right, Shigure?”

     He nodded, slowly looking to Georg before taking a seat across from him. After explaining everything to Georg, he finally looked into Georg’s eyes. “So you don’t know how to tell them? I’ll go get them for you; we’ll tell them together.”

     Before Shigure could even protest, he and Frey were left alone to wait until Georg had returned with Eris, Lyon, Seris and Geris. He sat them down on the couches, Shigure grimly looking up into Eris’ eyes. “Eris, I have to tell you something; I have something to tell all of you. Please just don’t do anything irrational when you find out; please. I beg all of you; please don’t.”

     When he explained the situation to them, Eris looked into his eyes with a blank stare. “What? Are you serious?”

     Lyon growled, eyes glaring into Shigure’s. “Who the hell did this to you?”

     “The master did, Lyon.”

     “He’s mine; finished. He’s done enough already; this was too far Shigure.”

     “Lyon, don’t you dare. You know better than that!” Georg glared at her, standing in front of her and staring into her eyes. “If you went after him now, you’d be no better than when Shigure tried to go into Stormfist to get Eris back.”

     She sighed, relaxing in her seat before looking back at Shigure. “So, does this mean you’re going to die sooner?”

     Seris was shaking in her seat, tears dripping onto her legs as she was forced to listen to the bluntness of Lyon’s words. Georg’s look started to bare down on her, hand on her shoulder. “Lyon; show some consideration. This is his wife and children; you’re being too harsh.”

     Lyon looked over to Seris, her eyes widening as she saw the girl silently crying. “Seris, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to-”

     Shigure stood up and sighed deeply, looking at Frey. “This is why I didn’t want them to know, Frey… Now look at them; they’re upset and shaken up about it. Is this what you wanted?”

     “No. I wanted you to be honest with your damned family, Shigure! That’s your wife; your children! They deserve to know what could happen to you; what eventually will happen to you; and you were willing to lie to them by finding some other way to die? What’s wrong with you?” All Shigure could do was look at the floor, unable to answer Frey in the slightest. “I may have hidden from my duties as a Prince, but that’s better than considering lying to whatever family I do have left so they won’t have to be let out of their sheltered lives. I don’t care if Nether Gate did this to you; you don’t lie to your family to get out of bringing them out from under their shelter. They deserved to know just like I did; I’m not going to let you lie to your family by not telling them something that’s important to your life.”

     Georg looked to Shigure, sighing out a bit. “Shigure, he’s right. Would you rather have left Frey to be the one to have to explain to your family why you suddenly died; why there were no symptoms of your inevitable and approaching death? I don’t care if you were scared of their reaction. Being a father of two children and husband to your wife means telling them what could or could not happen to you; telling them what’s wrong and expressing your joys with them. You don’t hide things from them because you’re scared to hurt them.”

     Shigure sighed, looking out the window before coughing a little; he soon composed himself and smiled back at them. “You guys worry too much, y’know? I’ll be alright. Don’t you have more faith in my strength than that?”

     Frey was shocked at the sudden change in his attitude, but he knew what was happening; he knew Shigure was trying to keep it all buried, despite the sudden showing of his sadness beforehand. “I do. They may not, but I certainly do Shigure.” He was trying to help Shigure convince his family that he would be okay after all, even though he knew otherwise.

* * *

     The months passed and Shigure’s illness was starting to affect him, rendering him bedridden as he was unable to even move by himself lest he fall to the floor. This left his family in a state of having to come to terms with the fact that his life was soon to be ending; that they had to plan to live without him sooner rather than later.

     Georg let himself into Shigure’s room in the palace, coming to check on him and give him his every-so-hourly trip to the washroom sequestered behind the corner of his room, and to make sure he had what he needed. During this time Shigure had grown quite close to Georg, their time spent together growing bigger and with it the bond between them.

    When Georg got Shigure back into bed, the younger looked up at him and sighed softly. “Georg, I… I want to have a moment of honesty with you. Can you lock the door for me please?” Georg, while confused as to what Shigure’s intentions were, abided by his wishes and did as requested; he returned to Shigure’s side, looking into his eyes in return. “Georg, I’ve been growing fonder of you ever since you started helping me out. I-” He began to cough a bit, and once he’d calmed down, he began to speak again. “I want to do one thing before my time finally ends in this world. I know I still have more time yet; I just… want to do one last thing.”

     Georg cocked an eyebrow, and before he could say anything to object to what was happening, Shigure pulled Georg down to his level and gently kissed his lips. When the younger one finally let him go, Georg was staring into his eyes, stunned and confused. “Shigure, what was that?”

     “I’ve been growing closer to you than ever before ever since you started helping me. With that, I’ve begun to obtain feelings of intimacy and love for you. I would never leave Eris for that, but I just had to kiss you once and make you aware of my feelings before I died.”

     Georg nodded, giving Shigure an addition to the situation by kissing his forehead and placing a hand to his cheek. “I understand Shigure. I’ll continue to help you as long as I can, and I’ll stay by your side. I’m not one for these sorts of encounters with men, however I’ll allow it with you under the following conditions; that it’s never to betray Eris, and as long as it’s simply for expressing yourself before your time comes to an end.”

     Shigure nodded to him, smiling as he placed his own hand to Georg’s, gently holding his hand. “You’ve been helping me for so long, Georg. It was only fate that I would end up feeling this way about you.”

     It seemed as if he was hesitating, to which Georg responded with a small question. “Shigure; is there something else you wanted to know?”

     Shigure shook his head, sighing a bit before making a forward comment. “Georg, I love you.”

     “I know, which is why I’m going to stay with you.” Shigure didn't have a chance to interject before Georg willingly kissed Shigure’s lips. “I’m not cruel.”

     “When I pass on, I want you to marry Eris and take care of her and my children. You’re the only one I would trust to do this in my place.”

     Georg nodded his head, brushing the hair away from his eyes and making eye contact with him. “I will.” He stood up and unlocked the door, looking back at Shigure. “Do you need anything? If not, I’m heading back down to Arsleia and Euram to help them out.” When he received a shake of Shigure’s head, he headed back out to the palace floor for his destination.

     Shigure lay in his bed alone now, sighing as he began to think to himself out loud. “I wish I could tell him that it was soon. I’m at least glad he agreed to before it was too late.” A tear fell from his right eye and slid to his pillow, his breath shallowly and shakily releasing from his mouth and lungs. “It’s soon. It’s coming for me most any day now; I just wish I could tell him. It’s just…” He coughed lightly and laughed silently at the situation. “It’s just not fair. At least they have him.” He would sigh out and look out of the window in front of him, starting to drift off to sleep and eyes drifting shut.

     Georg returned to Arsleia and Euram’s sides, helping them clean up some issues with the Senate and also restructuring some of the laws within the different cities in Falena. Seris would come into the audience chamber to see Georg standing in front of Arsleia, and she immediately approached him. “Hello Georg. How is father doing?”

     Georg sighed and looked at her, shaking his head. “He tells me he has more time left, but it’s clear that he’s getting close to his end.” He paused and closed his eyes, looking to Euram. “I would like to call Silva in from Lordlake, Your Majesty. I want to be ready when it happens; it’s soon.”

     Euram would nod to him, looking to Seris and then back at Georg. “I’ll get on it immediately, Georg.

     Within the next day, Silva had been called in to the palace in preparation for Shigure’s health coming to a head, whenever it so happened to occur. Georg checked on him every few hours, and was in the time in between while helping out around the palace in the Queen’s Chambers. When he heard the door slam open, he was rather appalled at first. “You know you’re to knock first. What the hell is the meaning of this?”

     The attendant looked panicked, eyes full of fear. “Sir, I was just in Shigure’s room to give him more water, and he wasn’t breathing. We need Dr. Silva immediately.”

     Georg was already taking off to exit the room, looking everywhere he could for Silva. He finally found her after traveling to her room on the same floor, where she was speaking with Frey. “Silva, it’s Shigure. The attendant said he isn’t breathing.” Without waiting for anybody to follow him, he took off upstairs in a panic, his heart pounding anxiously as he traversed the halls. Finally he slammed open the door to Shigure’s room after arriving in front of it, Silva pushing past him to his side.

     She put her ear to his chest to listen for a pulse, her fingers feeling along the underside of his wrist. She stopped when she discovered not even the faintest of beating. She looked back to Georg, who seemed halted and empty of almost all emotion. Within an instant however, he went to Shigure’s side and nearly shoved Silva aside. His face began to show intensity and frustration as he started to pump Shigure’s chest with his hands, his voice yelling out. “Eris!! Damn it, come on Shigure!!”

     For the first time in all his years of knowing Georg, Frey saw the elder’s eyes begin to well up with tears as he tried to resuscitate the now limp Shigure; he didn’t know what to think. He’d never seen Georg so upset or frustrated over anything sad, and it left him in shock.

     Georg wouldn’t stop pumping his chest, now pumping it even harder as he tried desperately to bring something back from the younger’s deathly state. Tears fell from his eyes with every movement of his body, falling onto the bed beneath him and ultimately some flicking onto Shigure as well. Eris finally looked inside, eyes wide as she saw the scene unfolding before her. She was speechless, Georg stopping to breathe as he was exhausting himself almost to the brink trying to revive Shigure. He was about to continue when Silva put her hand on his shoulder, shaking her head.

     “Georg, that’s enough. I need to examine his body now; please, stand back.” She spoke softly and sympathetically, eyes sorrowfully scanning over Shigure’s body as she took in what was happening. She was nearly shoved out of the way by Georg, who looked ready to keep going and in fact did. She simply stood by and watched him, deciding it was best to let him exhaust himself entirely, inside and out; that it would be the only way for him to release everything pent up inside of him.

     Georg kept it up for another half hour, finally getting to the metaphorical edge and slowly rolling off. He stared at Shigure’s lifeless body, his mouth gaped open as he tried to keep breathing, body hunched over as he held the edge of the bed for some form of support. Eris and Frey both stared at him in awe, having never seen him in such a state of pain of this magnitude. Georg picked up a pillow from the bed and threw it at the wall in anger and frustration, yelling out before he lay his head on Shigure’s body and began to sob almost silently; he had been here before, long ago, and he didn’t think he’d ever have to revisit the darkest depths of it again.

     Silva immediately ushered Frey and Eris out of the room, herself included, to give Georg the privacy he needed; she knew better than to let everyone stand there and stare at him in his darkest moments.

     Georg moved away from Shigure again, wiping his eyes to clear his vision enough to see clearly, staring back down at the younger one on the bed. “I never expected I’d… experience this level of emotion again, yet here I am. Haha, shows how strong I am, doesn’t it? You’d be poking fun at me right about now.” Little did he know, Eris could clearly hear him outside, as well as everyone else. The other Queen’s Knights, Seris, Geris, Euram and Arsleia were now gathered outside, wondering what was going on.

     “I made a promise to you that I would wed your wife and father your children when you passed on, and I intend to carry out that promise. I saw right through you yet somehow hoped that you would survive this. Maybe I need to borrow that rune of Arsleia’s one day.” He chuckled to himself rather emptily, his thumb stroking Shigure’s forehead. “I’m sorry you had to live through this. I promise you that we’ll eradicate everything left of them. I’ll make sure of it as you asked of me years ago at Barow’s mansion. I never forgot, and I’m not going to give up yet.” The door opened behind him to reveal Eris, Frey, Miakis and Lyon stepping inside with Silva, and Georg looked back to them, sighing deeply.

     He turned back to face Shigure, his eyes looking over his body. He started to lean down to place a kiss to his forehead when he heard Lyon exclaiming behind him. He turned back to face her, having to cover his eyes to protect them from the blinding light of the Dawn Rune. “Frey, control your rune!”

     Frey looked down at his hand and then back to his bodyguard and best friend, shaking his head in confusion. “I can’t; it’s doing this on its own.” His mouth then gaped open as he recalled something from quite some time ago, and he very quickly turned his attention to Miakis. “Wait a minute. The rune did this with Lyon when she was injured by Dolph, all on its own. You don’t think it’s...”

     He looked to Silva, who nodded her head in response to his thoughts. “It’s quite possible. Frey, I would try to let it work its magic on him. The heart they gave to him is impaired, but if we can revive it, I’m more than certain there’s a prisoner or two on death row that we could make use of one final time, correct?”

     He nodded to her, looking to Lyon and then back down to Shigure. He looked over to Georg, putting his hand on his shoulder in a motion for him to stand back. “Step back for me; I need to try.”

     Georg gave a hesitant nod and stood up onto his feet, stepping back and watching Frey take his place at Shigure’s side. Frey placed his hand over the lifeless chest in front of him, eyes baring down on his face as he began to focus all of his efforts into the Dawn Rune’s power. A moment or two passed, and Lyon could tell he was growing exhausted by the second. She stepped forward and grabbed his free hand, holding her left hand out next to Frey’s right to follow suit with Frey.

     A few moments later, their attention was turned to Georg as he exclaimed from behind them. “Shigure!” He knelt down beside Shigure as his eyes slowly started to open, his hand moving to grab the younger boy’s own for support. “My god...” He sighed deeply as Shigure turned his head to make eye contact with him, relieved by every stretch of one’s imagination. “Thank god, you’re alive...” He paused and then turned his gaze back to Shigure’s eyes, looking into them deeply. “We’re going to have your heart replaced; we’re putting an end to this, now. I’m going to go assist Silva in retrieving all of the necessary equipment from her room. Eris, Frey and Lyon will be here with you while you wait.”

     Georg sighed and stood back up, leaving Eris to have her long-awaited reunion with her husband. He stepped back to Silva and nodded to her, taking his leave from the room. Eris made her way to Shigure and knelt down beside him, wrapping her arms around him tightly and closing her eyes as she began to rest her head against the side of his neck. “I was so scared, Shi… I thought you were gone for good.” He chuckled and rubbed her head, looking into her eyes when she pulled away from him. “Georg was… really worried about you. I haven’t seen him such a mess in all my years.”

     Frey agreed, moving to the window and looking outside. “While I’m one for reunions as much as the next person, I do think we shouldn’t speak for now. We need to conserve as much of your energy as possible until the transplant is complete, Shigure.”

     Over the next few hours or so, Shigure had remained alive while waiting for Silva and Georg to return, and with the people whose runes would help him sleep and feel no pain during the process. Georg stayed by his side to hold his hand while Eris would help Silva perform the operation, given her placement in training to be a medic on the field when need be. It took no more than a couple of hours, and Frey and Lyon were to wait at his side should he start to feel any pain upon awakening.

* * *

     They spent the months afterward in extreme portions of recovery, which took about six months or so to complete in its entirety. The next plan of action came from Georg at dinner that night, Arsleia by his side with Euram on her other side. “Hello to all of you. Starting tomorrow, we’ll begin preparations to fully eradicate Nether Gate. I expect all of you to start resting well, as we’ll be pulling out all the stops. I’ve been telling Shigure for years now that I would make sure Nether Gate would cease to exist, and I intend to make that a reality now that the time is right.” Discussion went back and forth about how this would be achieved, and once all questions were answered, Georg pulled Shigure into the Queen’s Chambers with Frey and Arsleia.

     Shigure was in complete confusion, looking at the three who almost appeared to be cornering him. “What the hell is with you guys? You can easily just talk to me out there or anywhere else, can’t you? You had to corner me in here?”

     Georg shook his head, putting his hands on his shoulders. “We couldn’t talk about this out there. About a month or two ago, after Eris took off to Lordlake for further assistance in her medical training, whatever was left of Nether Gate went out and abducted her. We didn’t find out until last night from Fuyo.”

     About as soon as he could have thought to respond, Shigure turned his head as he heard panicked yelling coming from the room outside. When Fuyo was let inside by an attendant, he made his way to her and allowed her arms to wrap tightly around his frame, stroking his body. “I know Shigure; we know. We’ll get her back.” She pulled away from him, staring up into Georg’s eyes with sorrow filling her own. “I have unfortunate news to report, which places a grinding halt to everything.” Frey and Georg gave her the same look of confusion, and when she spoke it seemed as if everything around them stopped. “I was unable to make a change in position until now, however I must report that Oboro was taken from us as well. I spent almost two days searching for him; I asked whoever I could in the surrounding cities to help locate him. His body was found lifeless just outside of Lunas, by the river.” She stood stone cold with but only sadness in her voice and eyes, and what she turned to see broke her heart.

     Shigure was now beginning to cry, his entire world seemingly falling apart right before his very eyes. “Fuyo, please; you’re not serious.”

     She looked away from him, wishing with every fiber of her being that she could suddenly pull out a smile and tell him that it was all a joke; her face remained the horrible stain of blue that only a grieving face could show. “It’s put a halt on whatever progress we were trying to make in our preparations for taking down Nether Gate, as he was in the middle of using whatever sources he had to find the location of their headquarters. I might have been his partner in crime, but I’m not him; I’m afraid I just don’t have the capabilities to complete the tasks he set forth with.”

     Shigure sighed and closed his eyes, swallowing back his sadness and stepping forward. “I can.”

     Fuyo turned her head quickly and looked at him, cocking one of her eyebrows. “What?”

     “I can do it. All of that time I spent tucked away in his back room, I was studying his ways and knowledge. I know everything he did; I can take his place, at least until they’re gone.”

     Frey stepped toward him and put his hand on his shoulder, looking into his eyes once he gave him his attention. “Shigure, you don’t have to do this. I know how close you were with him.”

     He shook his head, looking to the door. “No. I’m the only one who can.” He paused, taking a deep breath to compose himself before looking to Fuyo, putting his hands on her shoulders and staring deep into her eyes. “I need for you to bring me all of his books, notes. Anything in that ship that belonged to him, he’ll have marked it all down. Anything to do with Nether Gate, it has an X on it. I need all of it; do you understand?”

     She nodded to him, placing her hands on his own. “I understand Shigure. I’ll be back; I’m docked in town at the piers.”

     Within the hour, all of the desks in Sialeeds’ former room had books piled almost a quarter of a mile high, and Shigure stood with certainty. “This is definitely all of it. Fuyo, thank you. This will help out a lot.”

     She moved forward and hugged him tightly, swaying them back and forth for a moment before pulling back to look into his eyes. “I know you’ll make him proud.” They nodded to each other before she had to bid them farewell to make her way back to her original post in Raftfleet.

* * *

     Over the next couple of months, Shigure had started kicking everyone out of the room to begin his studies where he could finally figure out Oboro had left off, not allowing anyone in except for Georg and Frey to keep him company or bring him food. Georg took a seat on the bed behind him, sighing as he failed to grab his attention in the slightest and watching Shigure simply mumbled and groan to himself. “Shigure, pay attention!” What he saw took him by surprise, and it wasn’t anything he expected.

     Shigure slammed his books down and turned back to face Georg, tired and frustrated. “Georg, I don’t have time!” He sighed deeply and looked back at the page he was on in the book, his eyebrows turning sour as he stared at the sentence intently. “On the cusp of one’s true sight, he will see in the ridges the answer to that of which he seeks.” He looked puzzled and then back to Georg, yelling out in frustration. “What the hell is that even supposed to mean, Georg?! How am I supposed to figure this out? Damn it!” He looked away, shaking his head in absolute frustration. “This is impossible...”

     Georg sat for a solid moment pondering on everything Shigure said before something clicked in his brain, and he looked at him with a sudden revelation. “Wait a minute. “He will see in the ridges”… Sable! Ferid once said he had to head there, and that’s when he came back with Eris. I’m not entirely sure, but his notes on it should be here in the palace somewhere.”

     Shigure nodded to him, agreeing with his point. “Go find those notes for me, Georg. I have to start somewhere.”

     “Of course.”

     A few hours later, Georg had returned to Shigure in Sialeeds’ room, only to find him staring blankly at a page that had more words on it than the others, which was obvious just from looking at it. He shut the door behind him and looked at Shigure, putting his hand on his shoulder. “Uh, I’m back with his notes.”

     Shigure slowly turned back to face Georg, eyes full of fear, sadness and confusion, all at once. “Georg, I have to back out of this. I can’t do this.”

     “And give up? What the hell, Shigure?”

     He shook his head, grabbing the book and marking the page by folding the corner, and he threw it at Georg. “Read that page. Out loud if you have to, just to understand why...”

     Georg opened the book and flipped to the last page that had a fold on its corner, and he began to read out loud the words he found. “Experiment number fifteen has seen far more than necessary. We have officially taken to calling him Shigure. He has stalled in his growth and thus stopped improving in any field whatsoever. We will document further once we have any changes in behavior or skill.” He went to the next section, where he found the source of Shigure’s dismay. “Experiment number sixteen, or Sagiri, has seen far more than she was intended. We have officially begun the process to eradicate her existence.”

     He paused, looked up at Shigure after he skimmed a bit to foresee what he’d experience, then stared back down at the page and resumed reading. “It is now three hours later, and Sagiri has been officially marked down as deceased in our records. We have replaced her with a fellow member who has proven very successful in disguising herself as various people, both male and female. Shigure has visited with this individual and has not yet noticed any visual or verbal differences between the two. We will continue to lump them together as siblings in hopes that this will prove very valuable to us in the future.”

     Shigure sighed and got up out of the desk chair, pacing around the room before placing his head on the wall and closing his eyes tightly. “Damn it! If they did this right under my nose back then, what else… what else have they done, and what else can they do?” After he uttered the words, he turned and looked to Georg fearfully, obviously lost in his confusion. “What do we do? This changes just how urgent all of this is. They were capable of that, who knows what they’re doing to her right now...”

     Georg stood up and walked over to Shigure, grabbing him by the shoulders and looking into his eyes. “Hey, calm down. We’ll find her and we’ll bring her back alive. You have to stay calm; otherwise we’ll never get through this.”

     He nodded to Georg, certainty in his eyes. “You’re right, Georg. Thank you. I’m taking a break for now to go eat with everyone downstairs. It’s about time I took that opportunity, ever since I started this mess.”

     Georg laughed and opened the door, heading outside with him. “You’re right. It’s always nice to just… sit down and eat with your friends and family.”

     About as soon as they could get to the staircase, Arsleia was approaching them frantically. “Shigure, Eris is in trouble.”

     He cocked an eyebrow, Georg shaking his head and kneeling down in front of her to get at eye level with her. “Okay, you need to tell us everything.”

     She sighed and looked up at Shigure, then back to Georg with remorse. “I saw a vision of her in this… dark room. She was tied to a chair, and had a blindfold over her eyes. There was water dripping in the corner and needles just barely prickling her arms and legs. I then had a sight of the master of Nether Gate going after her with a sword of some sort.”

     Shigure got this sick feeling in his stomach, running back to his study to start frantically flipping through the notes that Georg had retrieved for him. “God damn it, Ferid, where did you say the headquarters was? Fuck!!” Georg and Arsleia followed behind him, watching him in shock and awe. “Ferid, why couldn’t you have marked it down with some sort of… something?!” He then saw a giant red X on a single page and he almost dropped it, and he leaned forward and grabbed it before it managed to hit the floor. It confirmed their suspicions that the base was on the outskirts of Sable, and he turned back to the two. “We have to gather whatever supplies and whoever we can. It’s where we thought. We have to go, now.”

     Georg nodded and knelt back down to look into Arsleia’s eyes sternly, putting his hands on her shoulders. “Ars, stay here with Euram and don’t go anywhere. Do you understand me? Tell him what’s going on, and we’ll handle the rest.”

     She nodded quickly, standing out of their way as the two older men took off down the hall with half of a sprint to their pace.

     Together, Shigure and Georg went to retrieve Frey and Lyon, telling them what was happening as they went to the other wing to retrieve supplies from the Queen’s Knights room. They found Viki in the foyer once they went back downstairs and immediately demanded she warp them to Sable, and within just a few short seconds they found themselves there safe and sound.

     They headed west of Sable through the forested regions and began to pick up their strides, frantically searching for the stone facility of which was their target. Once they found it, Shigure stopped them and looked each of them in the eyes cautiously. “We have to move silent but fast. Don’t let them hear you enter, do you understand?” Lyon didn’t respond after having been accustomed to reminding them things of the sort in the past, but Georg and Frey agreed hastily.

     They rushed the place as best as they could, taking down Nether Gate soldiers as they popped up in their paths, and when it got down to the master, he made himself a rather easy target without much of an effort. He was an elderly man, which made his movements rather slow and sluggish. He was taken down rather easily by Shigure, and together he and Frey ransacked his pockets until they found a rather intricately designed key, which they assumed was to the room downstairs that they would find Eris in.

     Shigure frantically unlocked the door and rushed inside with Georg close by his side, and what he found inside froze him in his place. Her body was limp in the chair, shoulders nor chest not moving in the slightest to indicate breathing. Frey tried to feel for a pulse but found not even the remains of one, and her body was in fact rather cold. He slowly looked back to Shigure, who was silent where he stood. He couldn’t find it in himself to make even a small step toward her as he stared at his wife’s lifeless body in the chair.

     He finally moved his head to stare up into Georg’s eyes, and the man in black could do nothing but give him a look of guilt. “I’m sorry. I told you we would bring her back alive, and I failed you, Shigure.”

     Lyon’s jaw dropped open, her head shaking furiously. “Georg, this isn’t your fault. Not even Arsleia’s. Nobody could have stopped this… This is what they do.”

     Georg finally stepped forward and grabbed Shigure’s shaking body, holding him close and closing his own eyes tightly as he tried to comfort him in any way he could.

     Hours passed them by and Shigure had finally managed to let them all move again, and he finally shook off his sadness enough to face his wife. He knelt down in front of her body and began to untie her bindings, Georg removing the blindfold from her face and tossing it on the floor. “Shigure, do you want me to carry her?”

     He shook his head, closing his eyes for just a few seconds before looking back to Eris. “No. I’ll get her.”

     They stood by and watched him bare every ounce of sadness while lifting her up, carrying her body bridal style as they all began to exit the room. They finally got outside and Frey got out his handheld mirror, which would teleport them back to the foyer of the palace, where they were faced with horror.

     Shigure sighed and made his way into the Queen’s Chambers without a word, staring at Arsleia with sadness in his eyes. She gasped silently and looked away, covering her mouth as Euram began to step forward. “Go wait outside with her in the courtyard. We shall make immediate preparations.”

     Shigure silently did as he was told, Georg following him closely but was met with terror as he heard Seris and Geris rushing downstairs happily when told that they’d returned.

     Georg turned back to face them while Shigure remained facing the door to go outside, and Seris jumped up and down happily. “We were waiting for you to come back ever since Euram told us you were going. We were so worried.”

     Geris looked his dad up and down from behind, getting more and more worried by the second. “Dad? Why won’t you look at us?”

     When Shigure finally turned around to face them, his face saddened and weary, Seris broke down in tears immediately. Geris turned to hold her tightly, tears filling his eyes as well though remaining more composed than his sister.

     Georg told them both rather silently to wait out in the courtyard for Euram and Arsleia to join them, Georg holding them both as they all made their way to the garden in the courtyard. Silva found them outside as Frey and Lyon retrieved her, and together they all stood by and waited until Euram and Arsleia joined them. They all dug a hole big enough for Eris’ body to fit inside, and they all stood by as Shigure knelt down beside her lifeless body to speak to her.

     He sighed deeply and kissed her forehead, pushing her still-beautiful brown hair out of her face. “I didn’t ever think I would see this day… not this soon. I hope you had the same conversation with Georg that I did, because who now will mother these children? I’m sorry we didn’t see it sooner… I’m so sorry we didn’t get there sooner.” He felt a lump form in his throat as he leaned down to kiss her lifeless lips one last time, standing up immediately after to stand beside Georg as they lowered her body into the ground.

     Seris was still more of a mess than her brother, who looked to his right to find Zera from the Sacred Games approaching them. When told of the predicament, the boy in black simply closed his eyes and held his arms out from his sides as his mother would always do when using her rune, and his forehead shone for a few seconds before dust began to fall against Eris’ body. Everyone turned to look at Zera before he closed his eyes, made a cross formation with his forehead, chest and shoulders, and looked back to her lifeless body. “May she forever rest with the stars from this day forth until the end of times.”

     Once the burial was completed and flowers were placed around her now-refilled site, everyone began to disperse from the area to go grieve in their own ways and in their own places of choice. Zera went with Geris and Seris, Arsleia departed with Euram, Silva followed them suit with Frey and Lyon, and Georg remained at Shigure’s side as he stayed outside.

     He placed his hand on the grieving widower beside him, looking toward his face. “It looks like it’s going to rain. We should head back inside.”

     Shigure simply nodded to him, turning around on his heels and letting Georg escort him up to his own room. When they got inside, Georg went to take his leave and Shigure finally broke his silence. “Georg, don’t go.”

     The man dressed in his Knights uniform simply closed the door behind him, returning to his position beside Shigure. “Then I’ll stay.” He sighed deeply, sitting down on the bed beside Shigure and facing him. “By the way, Eris did have a conversation with me once about something like this happening. It was right after she became wedded to you.” Shigure looked him in the eyes, his own rather weary and tired, heavy with sadness. “She placed her trust in me years ago when I protected her, before you arrived here. She felt the same way for me even after she married you, and much like what you asked of me, she demanded I take her place if anything ever removed her from this world.”

     Shigure looked at his own two feet, remaining rather silent unmoved emotionally until Georg began to speak a few seconds later. “I told her I couldn’t do that, simply because my mere presence can’t replace a deceased spouse. However… I agreed that I would stand in her place, to father her children in her absence and care for her husband. I won’t ask you to finalize all of this right now, with all of this having just happened, but I will unofficially take her place from this day forth. Whenever you wish to officiate it, all you need to do is say the words.”

     Shigure looked up into his eyes again, swallowing back the lump that was forming in his throat again. “Lock the door for me, Georg.”

     Although his request confused the somewhat older man, Georg agreed and walked to the door and back to the bed after locking it. He sat back down and looked to Shigure, who seemed disgruntled by some thought in his head. “Why lock the door?”

     The man with beautiful brown hair leaned forward, sharing a kiss that was both filled with grief and full of passion with the raven-haired fellow, closing his eyes and blindly placing a hand on the strong yet callused ankle, baring skin paler than his own. When he pulled back a few seconds later, Georg stared into his eyes, wondering what to think. “You didn’t have to continue it, Georg.”

     Georg shook his head, placing his hand on top of Shigure’s and sighing deeply. “No, I did. If I didn’t, then my feelings wouldn’t have been understood. Just because you’re the first doesn’t make the feelings any less than with a woman.”

     Shigure nodded, finally speaking more than just a few words. “That was the goal of that kiss. I would know whether or not I wanted to make anything official on paper or otherwise based on how you handled it. I don’t want a ceremony… but I do want it officiated. You’ve known how I feel about you for months now, Georg. Despite having just lost her, I don’t want to grieve her loss alone.”

     Georg nodded his head sternly, placing a hand on Shigure’s shoulder. “You won’t. I’ll be here until you tell me to leave your side.”

     Shigure looked away with a nod of his head, seemingly thinking about so many things at once. He took a few deep breaths before staring back into Georg’s eyes with a newfound sense of sadness and grief filling his own orbs that provided light into his feelings. “Georg?”

     The older man tilted his head to the side and cocked an eyebrow, humming a bit. “Hm? What is it?”

     Shigure sighed deeply again after swallowing the lump yet again forming in his throat, keeping his composure for the sake of all his pride. “You’re no doubt aware that I’ve been raised to… hide this; to shield others from it so that my true intentions were never seen. I’ve never known when the right time to take away the veil was, but...” He took a deep breath, continuing a few seconds later. “How do I know when it’s right?”

     Georg sighed and put his hand on Shigure’s upper back, rubbing it slightly. “Whenever you feel it’s right.”

     With that one sentence, Shigure finally broke in half it seemed. Tears filled his exhausted eyes as he closed them, curling up in a ball before Georg could place his arms around him. Without truly understanding even the chaos running loose inside of his own mind, Shigure felt somewhere within himself that it was time to finally let go of everything he’d ever known; to forsake it all to finally unravel all of the damage inside of him.

     Georg carefully uncurled his body and held him close, closing his own eyes as he shouldered with Shigure all of the grief and sadness he felt, having grown as close to Eris as her own husband had. He took a staggered inhale of breath before placing his hand on the back of Shigure’s head, gripping his head tightly as he started to speak with a broken and almost irreparable tone. “I know; I’ll miss her too.”

     It took them a few hours to finally work through all of the feelings and sadness enough to let them go for the time being, where they began to sort through the notes in the study to put them in archives. While searching through them, they found Eris’ files with information that even she hadn’t divulged to them. Shigure looked to Georg in curiosity over whether or not he should read it, and he was answered with a nod. “She would have wanted you to know everything about her, inside and out. Read it.”

     What Shigure began to unearth was horrifying, even after all of the things he’d experienced at the hands of those who killed her, but he began to read all of it aloud regardless. “Experiment number ten, originally named from birth as Elisia Le’Claire, has now been documented as Erismar, much like her brethren Shigure, Sagiri, Michafute and Mismar. She has risen through the ranks in great time, and we foresee her becoming the top of her class in no time flat. It is now day five hundred and three, and she has since risen to the top as expected. We’ve begun to notice that she has grown rather smart against us and will poke her nose into business of which it doesn’t belong, so we have taken to punishing her in order for her lesson to be learned. Some would call it assault, others might would even call it damaging, however it is the only way we see fit for her to learn the error of her ways. We cannot afford to have our plans for the future damaged in any way due to her nosy behavior.”

     Shigure paused for just a short few seconds to breathe, finally continuing with the words displayed before. “Day five hundred and fifty. We have secured Erismar into a fully compliant state for the time being, using her punishments as leverage against her. She appears to be broken down to a bare minimum now, which was our initial goal. We appear ready to move forward in our plans to restructure her mind; soon she will be fit for toying with by anyone.” He looked up into Georg’s eyes, mouth gaped open just a bit. “Oh god, what’s next? Fuck, I don’t know if I...”

     Georg knelt down in front of him and put his hand on his arm. “Hey, it’s okay. You can do it.”

     Shigure had skimmed forward, his hands shaking and dropping the book after his grip loosened completely and fell apart. “Georg… I can’t read it. It-”

     Georg tightened his grip on Shigure’s arm, looking sternly into his eyes. “Shigure, take the book, put on your big boy pants, and read the words off of the page. Out loud. You have to know everything.”

     Shigure took the book back into his hands after Georg reached for it and gave it back to him, exhaling shakily as he finally began to read the words. “We were surprised to see Erismar take the initiative and offer to be the one to end Sagiri’s life. We have officially turned her into the ideal member and reflection of Nether Gate. As master of this group, it pleases me to see all of the efforts we’re putting in pay off with such great rewards. She made the killing slow yet very much worth the time it took, placing every skill she’d ever learned into that one kill. She is the very reflection of all that we stand for.”

     Shigure looked into Georg’s eyes, who was also rather shocked after what he’d just listened to. “There has to be more behind this.”

     Shigure closed his eyes, dropping the book on the floor and sinking against the back-rest of the chair. “I… She-” He swallowed all of the emotions rising in his throat, biting back his instinct to scream and yell in frustration and anger, eyes darting all around the room with his head remaining still. “There’s…”

     Georg sighed and let his hand fall from Shigure’s arm, deciding it was best not to hold him down should he decide he wanted to stand on his own feet.

     Shigure slowly stood up and started to walk to the door, closing his eyes and feeling tears well up despite that. “How could she? I know her better than anyone else – she was still in there, deep down. She knew what she was doing, even despite their hold on her. You know that too.” Georg remained silent, afraid to verbally confirm the words spewed out to him. He watched Shigure as he punched the door and nearly put a hole in it, eyes opening and releasing tears while holding all of the utmost frustration and sadness that one’s eyes could possibly contain. “God damn it! She fucking knew what she was doing… even despite that… How could she even fucking...” He took a shaky inhale of breath, staring back at Georg in absolute defeat. “How could she do this?”

     He finally opened the door and stared out into the hallway, angry at the world and at Eris for not having told him the truth, however even angrier that she had done it regardless of still being who she truly was at heart. He walked out of the room without a word, his stride taking him on a path that even he was unsure of himself. His feet finally carried him into a sprint as Georg walked out to watch him, who soon grew worried as he began to run.

     His run carried him to Geris’ room, where he slammed open the door and found Zera sitting on the bed talking with his son. “Hey dad, is every-thing...”

     Geris’ voice trailed off as his father advanced toward the boy in black beside him, hands grabbing his shoulders and one of them tearing the hood away from his head in order to reveal the Resurrection Rune on his forehead. “Come with me. I had my fucking assumptions, but you’re needed. Now.” Georg had finally caught up to him when he began to storm out of the room while dragging Zera behind him.

     Zera finally placed a tight grip on Shigure’s forearm, glaring at him while placing his hood back on his head. “Hey, let go of me. What is the meaning of this?”

     Georg tried to place his hands on Shigure’s body to stop him, but he was shoved away while an answer was being given to Zera. “I need you out in the courtyard. Immediately.” Without another word, Shigure let go of Zera and started to walk to the foyer of the palace, several sets of footsteps following behind him.

     Once they were out in the courtyard, Shigure glared down at the place of which they’d buried his newly deceased wife before turning his gaze to Zera. “I’m going to remove her body from this spot, and you are going to use your rune to resurrect her. Don’t bother telling me it’s too difficult, as I’ve seen your skills. Do it, and do it fast. Do you understand?”

     Zera simply nodded his head as he stood by and watched Shigure dig up his Eris’ limp body. It took a few moments but once her body was unearthed, Zera spread his arms out from his sides as he’d done before, chanting the word “yell” a few times before her body began to twitch with newfound life.

     She looked up into Shigure’s eyes, smiling and moving in to kiss him. She was coldly rejected, Shigure’s eyes full of hatred and pure venomous disdain for her. “Don’t kiss me. I know what you did.” Without moving his eyes from her body, he began to speak to Geris and Georg. “Geris, Georg – hold her back so she won’t move. Now.”

     Georg and Geris grabbed Eris’ arms and began to hold her back while Shigure’s hands moved to remove his sword from its sheath, her eyes filling with fear. “Shigure, what’s wrong with you?! Stop this!!”

     He didn’t speak a single word to her as his eyes looked into her own, mouth finally moving on autopilot as he began to speak only words someone who felt true and utter disdain for someone could think. “Now it’s your turn to see what it’s like to be the one killed. You knew what she meant to me back then – you knew of our existences back then, and I know you killed her. All on your own. Now it’s my turn to kill you. Nothing can take away my fucking rage for you, so now you get to truly feel it for yourself.”

     Her eyes stared into his own in fear and guilt, and soon his sword stabbed itself into her chest with a quick strike. Georg closed his eyes and turned his head away from the scene – he couldn’t look at the display. Shigure looked to his son, eyes glued to Eris’ own. “Geris, cover her mouth.”

     When he did as instructed, Shigure’s sword began to twist and stagger itself through every inch of her heart, and her voice began to scream out in absolute pain and agony against the teen’s hand. Shigure clenched his teeth together angrily, nearly causing damage to his own body with how hard his teeth pressed together. When he finally pulled his sword out of her body, it gushed and spewed blood from the wound rather heavily and quickly.

     Georg and Geris’ hands let go of her, allowing her body to fall to the ground in pain. Shigure kicked his foot into her gut, hearing her whimper out quietly as she fell into the hole she’d just been removed from. “Georg, help me bury her again.”

     Shigure spat on her body before he started to place the dirt back onto her in small increments, letting her truly feel the pain of slowly being trapped and buried by her own past. Once they were done, Shigure looked into Georg’s eyes and felt all of his venomous rage begin to fade away bit by bit. “Don’t look back at it. Let’s go.”

     Georg stood stiff in his place as he watched Shigure make his way back into the palace, soon shifting his gaze to look to both Zera and Geris. “I can’t believe he did it...” Geris looked down at the burial spot, Zera placing his hand on his fellow teen’s shoulder. “Don’t look. Come on, let us go back inside. Georg, you should return to Shigure. I’m sure he needs you.”

     Georg finally snapped out of his daze and nodded, quickly moving forward to catch up to his half-lover that was quickly fading from his sight.

     When they finally returned Shigure’s room, Georg shut and locked the door behind them and turned to stare Shigure down as he sat on the bed. “What the hell was that?”

     Shigure looked up at him rather calmly, eyes serious and remaining free of any guilt whatsoever. “I did what I had to do, Georg. There are no other appropriate fates for people like her. Deep down in her heart, she was still who she was when I met her, and still had it within her to kill. She still had it within her to flip that switch when faced with the word “raging” at dinner. She still had it within her, despite having changed so much after that point. People like her deserve but a single fate, and I simply delivered that to her.”

     Georg sighed and made his way to Shigure, kneeling down in front of him. “Shigure, don’t do that again. I… didn’t like seeing you turn into that person.”

     Shigure gave him a rather pensive stare, sighing deeply. “Georg, you are more than aware that I told you years ago that I would do anything for my sister. I will take a blade to absolutely anyone for her, and Eris is no exception. There are no exceptions when it comes to Sagiri, no matter my connection with them.” He paused for just a few seconds before looking back into Georg’s eyes, cocking an eyebrow. “Surely you know someone you feel the very same for?”

     Georg stalled before closing his eyes, moving to sit down on the floor rather than rest on his knee. “I feel that way for you. I don’t give a damn who it is – I’ll take a blade to anyone for you.”

     Shigure nodded to his lover, looking deeper into his eyes. “See? You understand it. So don’t ask me not to ever again, because I would do for you as I would for her.”

     Georg slowly took hold of Shigure’s hands, moving forward and kissing his lips deeply on his own for once, rather than waiting for Shigure to do it for him. “Georg, what was that?”

     He smiled lightly to Shigure, resting their hands on his lap. “Showing you just how strongly I feel for you.”

     Shigure and Georg’s moment of happiness was soon interrupted by a knock on the door, and he stood to his feet to move to it and unlock it. He opened it to see Geris and Zera standing before him, rather cautious of his state of mind. “Boys, come in. I need to talk with you.”

     Once the two teens had let themselves inside and take seats on the bed beside Georg’s newfound place, Shigure sighed and picked up the book he’d dropped on the floor earlier. “Boys, whatever is said here, don’t tell Seris – not yet. You know she’s not strong enough. Understood?”

     Geris gave a verbal agreement while Zera nodded his head, and then Shigure walked over to stand in front of them while leaning against the wall. “This book held information that none of us could have known about before, but could have used. To my knowledge, she kept journals in her own room, and I’m going to find them to see if I can find any other information that puts all of this together that maybe she jotted down.” He sighed and opened the book back to the page that held the worst information he’d ever read in his existence, looking back up at Geris directly. “Back a long time ago now when Sagiri and I were still a part of Nether Gate, Eris was also with them. She knew of our existences back then, just not personally. Regardless, when it came time for Nether Gate to… rid the world of Sagiri’s existence, Eris was the first one to stand up and say they would be the one to do so.”

     Geris’ eyes were full of shock and fear, looking first into Zera’s and then into his father’s. “Wait, so-”

     Shigure held up his finger and looked back down into the book, then back to his son. “What only I understood about her was that no matter what state she was in, she was still true to her own heart deep down – she was still herself, deep down inside. So I know that despite being under their hold, she was still herself deep inside and knew exactly what she was doing.”

     He sighed deeply and tossed the book onto the bed but away from any of the boys and men in front of him, closing his eyes and turning his head away. “I never thought I’d end up staring any one of my sister’s tormentors in the face, much less fall in love with one of them. So when I read what she had done, I knew what I had to do.”

     He took a deep breath to compose himself, looking into Geris’ eyes after moving to kneel down in front of him. “And I’m sorry that I involved you both in this, but I wasn’t thinking. Not of anyone but my sister. Let me tell you two, I would do anything for her. It doesn’t matter who it is or what connection we have – I would take a sword to anyone who dared to hurt her if I found out about it. It didn’t matter that I found out she was already dead; it doesn’t change what I would do for her.”

     He gripped his sons lower thighs tightly, looking deeper into his eyes. “Please be that for Seris. Protect her, Geris. I don’t like living through others, not for a minute… but do for her what I wasn’t able to do for Sagiri – please.”

     For the first time in his life, Geris saw his father plead to him and grow soft with his own emotions. He nodded firmly, putting his hands on his father’s shoulders. “Dad, you know I will. I haven’t let you down before, have I?”

     Shigure chuckled and reached up to ruffle Geris’ hair, smiling at him. “No, you haven’t. You’re the best son a father could ask for.” He slowly stood up, looking to Zera. “Hey, Zera. Come walk with me. I want to talk for a bit.” After Zera gave him a rather stalled agreement, he grabbed the book from the bed and made his way to the door, looking back to Geris. “We’ll be back soon. I just need some time.”

     Shigure began to walk down the halls until he’d reached Sialeeds former room, going inside and letting Zera in with him. He shut the door and locked it behind them, sitting down at the desk for the first time since they’d left to find Eris at the Nether Gate headquarters. “Zera, sit down on the bed. I just want to talk – that’s all. You’re not getting dragged into anything else, I promise.”

     He chuckled at his own statement, turning the chair so that he could face the newly seated teen before him. “I believe you met Geris at the Sacred Games, yeah?”

     Zera nodded, slowly removing his hood for the time being since he could foresee a great deal of honesty commencing. “Yes, I did.”

     Shigure nodded back to him, leaning back in the chair and placing the book upon the desk. “I assume you two are growing rather close? I’ve seen you show a softer side to him than you have to others.” Zera looked away just a slight bit, soon nodding his head without a word.

     Shigure looked right into his eyes and nodded to him, glancing to the door for a second as he spoke before looking back into Zera’s eyes. “You can be honest about that with me. Georg and I are rather close ourselves – there’s no judgment, Zera.”

     Zera saw the genuine open-mindedness in Shigure’s eyes, and he smiled just a tad. “Yeah, we are. I do rather enjoy his presence, sir.”

     The older man smiled and looked at the book as he responded, shifting in the chair just a bit. “I assumed as much. I can tell you even might love him, Zera. You give him the same smile that I once would give Eris, and even Georg as well.”

     He soon sighed deeply and picked the book back up, holding it on his lap so that it was in sight of both of them. “Zera, while the words on these pages might not say it themselves, everything in here is the very reason I’m alive and so adamant that my two children share the same fate later in life as myself – to live and grow freely in this world as they both see fit.”

     He sighed deeply and looked down at the hard cover that helped to bind the pages together, closing his eyes as he thought deeply for just a few short seconds before returning his gaze to the boy in black sitting before him. “I can see how deeply you care not only for my son but for my daughter as well – you care for them as strongly as I do for Sagiri, even in her death. Do whatever you must to ensure that you remain able to protect them in my absence. I’m not always going to be here, and they have a trust in you that I’m sure is indescribable by words alone – make sure that trust is never misplaced. I’m entrusting their lives to you, because I can see myself in you. I can see that you’re capable of this. Do you understand, Zera?”

     Zera nodded to him, looking down at the book and then up into Shigure’s eyes. “Yes sir – I do. I’ll see to it that I not let you down, nor let either of them down.”

     Shigure nodded, soon turning his attention to the books on the desk and then back to Zera. “Now that we’ve discussed that, there’s one last thing I’ll need your assistance with. I want you to come with me to Eris’ room after we go get Georg. I’ll send Geris to sit with Seris for the time being. I need to find anything I can that will help me understand what exactly her motives were.”

     Zera nodded to him rather firmly, standing up from the bed as Shigure stood on his own two feet as well.

     Together they both made their way back to his room, finding Geris and Georg where they’d been left. After dismissing Geris to his sister’s side, he waiting until he was gone to speak to Georg. “We’re going to go through Eris’ room. I’ll need you there.” Georg, without any other words, understood what Shigure was asking of him, and together the three of them made their way back to the other wing of the palace to find themselves stood before the door to Eris’ room.

     Shigure stared at it with eyes full of both anger and sadness, being met with Georg’s strong hands firmly gripping his arm. He sighed and put his hand on the knob, turning it and slowly opening the door to reveal the same old room he’d grown to love entering before. It was just as she had left it the day she took off for medical training, and it almost sent a chill down Shigure’s spine.

     He sighed deeply and stepped forward, his fingers slowly sliding against the backrest of the very chair he’d sat in while waiting for her to awaken – that wretched day she’d been rescued from the dungeon of the palace after Gizel had been taken down. He stared at the seat of the chair and then to the bed, eyes full of confusion more than anything else. “I remember the day I sat here, waiting for her to wake up there. I fell asleep in the chair because I was so exhausted.” His eyes held venom and cold for just a few seconds, a rage-filled comment spilling from behind his lips. “I wish I had left her down there to rot.”

     Georg placed his hand on Shigure’s shoulder, shaking his head when he had full attention. “Come on, let’s look for the journals – we can spit out rage later.” Shigure nodded and began to rummage through the various cabinet drawers and such, pulling out book after book that looked to be a spitting image of a journal that someone such as Eris would keep – black hard covers, a bit worn but rather new looking for the most part.

     After a little over an hour had passed, the three were faced with a decent sized singular pile of the books, that they had arranged in order by the dates on the binders. “Let’s start reading through them.” Georg had grabbed the first third of books, Zera grabbed the middle of them, and Shigure took in his hands the last of the stack – the end of her journey.

     As they all began to read through the books, Zera’s mouth gaped open just a bit almost immediately. “Shigure, sir, you should-”

     Shigure immediately shifted his position so that he could see into the book, reading from it for all of them. “It’s been just a few short days since the Sun Palace fell into the hands of Gizel, and we’ve since taken refuge with Barows and his family. He’s rather… obnoxious. I can’t wait to have an excuse to kill him – even his own son isn’t this bad. Now I think I know why his wife hides in her room all of the time. I’d hide too if I was married to someone like that.”

     He skipped forward a bit, not really at anything important until a few paragraphs ahead. “It appears that it’s almost time to head back to Dolph and the others. It’s a rather good thing I’m such a wonderful actress, isn’t it? They all actually thought Dolph scared me back at the palace – it’s laughable. They’ve no idea just how close their own deaths are, which is the best part. Once the Sun Palace is fully taken over by Gizel, they’re all as good as dead.”

     Georg gave Shigure a look of reassurance before setting his own books aside, giving him full attention. “It’s been a few days now, and I’ve since rejoined with them at the Sun Palace. They still have their suspicions about me, though it’s only for outward appearances. All of this leads up to our future to have my… allies, if I can even call them that, believe that I’m just a figurehead in this game of Gizel’s. I’ve made an agreement that on the day of liberation for the palace, I shall simply act as if I’ve been abused by them so that they fall further into my ploy.”

     Shigure sighed deeply and closed his eyes, rather angry that he’d fallen in love with such a despicable person. Regardless of his feelings, he continued reading ahead until he read something that twisted the metaphorical knife that was resting in his gut. “Shigure and I have officially been wedded now for about three months, and while most newly-wedded brides would be ecstatic over such a thing, this is simply just another game for me. Even the future birth of what I now believe to be twins – this will push his love for me to no bounds at all, and he’ll simply do anything for me. It won’t be much longer now before I finally set in motion the one thing to break him far past any repairable state.”

     Zera felt his mouth gape open slightly, in awe that the woman he’d helped Shigure kill was as vile as Shigure had found out before. Shigure finally slapped the book shut and grabbed the final book from his pile, opening it to the back to find the final entry she’d ever made as curiosity was starting to get the better of him.

     “It is now time for me to depart for the headquarters of Nether Gate once more. I’ve planned to leave for my… “medical training” as a guise to head back to the headquarters, where things will finally be set in motion. I care no longer what happens to my own life, so long as I manage to cause him a great deal of pain in the process. I’ve given the Master permission to end my life as he sees fit once I arrive there, as we’re more than sure we’ll be attacked by Shigure soon after. Arsleia’s rune will surely lead them to us and allow us the perfect timing on this final mission. The only favor I’ll possibly do him is leave him in Georg’s care. Let him take care of this baby that cares only for his sister, and see how long he lasts. With someone as pessimistic as Shigure around, there’s only a matter of time before he snaps as well. Then again, at this point, you can’t even call something like that a favor, can you?”

     Shigure stared at the rest of the page, which bore only a blank space, eyes slowly staring up into Georg’s own as if he were lost. “How… could she? Then what we had was… Even our own two children...”

     Georg shifted over to him, shoving the books out of the way before embracing his love interest tightly, closing his eyes and securing him against his larger frame. “It’s okay, Shigure. People like that… as you put it, deserve only one fate, and you gave that to her.” He pulled out of the hug and looked deep into Shigure’s eyes, giving him a stern look. “You gave her what she deserved, whether you found all of this out afterward or not. You did what you had to, remember?”

     Shigure nodded, sighing deeply and shaking his head a bit to shake off his emotions. He looked to Zera and nodded to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. “You didn’t do much, but thank you anyway, Zera.”

     Zera nodded to him and smiled a bit, looking to Georg as well before returning his gaze to Shigure. “No. You let me know that I could be honest, so I decided that you deserved to be repaid for it – so I helped you.”

     Shigure smiled at him sweetly, giving him a comforting look. “You’re a good kid, Zera. You’ll make Geris a very happy man one day – maybe one day soon.”

     Zera admittedly blushed a bit at Shigure’s comment, to which he was greeted with a chuckle. “Come on, no need for any of that. You love him – we can see it. Have pride in it – don’t be embarrassed.”

     The boy in black finally smiled and nodded his head, standing up onto his feet with a neatened pile of books in his hand. “You’re right. I suppose we should put these away with the rest of the documents you had in the other wing, to go into the archives you both started.”

     Shigure nodded his head and had Georg grab the rest of the books while he stood up to look out of the window. “You two go on ahead to the other wing and put these books with the rest. I’ll join you both later – I just need a little time.” Georg took his leave with Zera and closed the door behind them, and Shigure sighed as he turned to look at the bed Eris had once used for herself for so many years. Despite having such a hatred for everything she had done, he felt a hollow feeling in his heart, which only represented the loss of his wife that he’d fallen in love with so deeply.

     He walked over to the bed, remembering the times they had spent making love to each other in these very sheets, conceiving their two children and sharing deep passion together. He stroked the fabric with his shaking fingers, a few tears making themselves known in his eyes. He could feel the wound in his heart tearing back open, fighting past all of his newfound hatred and rage for her. He wasn’t sure if it was out of sadness or defeat, but he could feel the tears multiplying by the second and there wasn’t anything he could do to stop them.

     He made his way over to the closet that held all of the clothes she’d ever had during her stay with them in the very building he stood in, hands slowly opening the door to view them in full as they hung neatly on the racks. Within the multiple outfits, he found the two that held the fondest memories he had of her – the one she’d worn the day they became bonded together on paper, and the one that was the face of her time in Nether Gate – both were able to then tear open the wound in his heart in full, without question.

     He reached his hands out in front of him to place them on a beautiful white gown, simple in design yet the fabric holding an intricate design once looked at closely. He felt the tears in his eyes overflow and begin to fall, his hands balling up into fists and gripping the fabric tightly in anger, sadness and defeat. He shook his head a few moments later, feeling the time for reliving the memories was long worn out and better left in the room he stood in.

     He closed the closet doors and made his way to the door, opening it and standing in the doorway. He turned around to look into the room from a distance, having flashbacks almost immediately. He and Eris talking on the first day they both stayed in the palace together – jabbing at each other with jokes once her false smile had faded. The very night they had made love to each other that would prove to be the night they had conceived their son and daughter – finally, the day they said goodbye to each other when she left to go for medical training.

     He finally placed his hand on the doorknob, which now felt cold and unwelcoming, pulling the door shut behind him and simply standing there. He then began to remember the night the palace fell to the attack by Gizel’s men, when she had been recovered from her soiled bed after the supposed assault on her by Dolph. He shuddered at the fact that it all had been a ploy to simply draw them all into her even further, anger seeping back into the forefront of his emotions.

     His foot slammed into the door, a growl exiting his mouth as he finally couldn’t contain any piece of what he was feeling. He couldn’t keep a hold on any of it, and it was starting to wear down on him once more. He yelled out in absolute frustration and anger, slamming his fist against the beautiful wooden door in front of him that now only looked awful and disgusting. He leaned against the door and clawed at the material, feeling tears of rage fall from his eyes as he finally was beginning to process everything running through his mind of the situation.

     He finally backed away from the door after he managed to calm himself, finally making his way down the hall and across the way to the other wing. He was halfway there when an attendant stopped him, notifying him that everyone had gone to the docks in town to get out for a bit.

     Shigure then made his way downstairs and eventually found himself at the docks, being greeted by Georg, who immediately noticed how weary he looked. “Hey, are you feeling alright?”

     Noticing that his daughter was not too far away, he simply nodded his head and leaned forward to whisper to him. “We’ll talk about it later. Let’s enjoy the outdoors for now.” He gave Georg a smile, leaning against his larger frame and sighing deeply, able to feel relaxed in this very moment, being in the presence of his children, Zera, Frey, Lyon, and his lover of slightly older age.

     Seris was standing on the edge of the pier, looking out at the beautiful landscape of water that stretched out in front of them. “One day I’m gonna go out and see the world, like mom did.”

     Shigure felt anger and sadness crawling back into his mind, however he managed to muster up a smile for his daughter as she looked back at him, turning his gaze to her as well. “That’s right. You’re going to be strong and see the world, just like her.”

     He looked to Georg as he felt a hand rub his arm, soon paying it no mind as he lay his head back against Georg’s chest beside him. He smiled to himself, happy with the moment they were all spending together – Frey and Lyon standing side by side as best friends, Seris standing on the edge of the pier looking out at her metaphorical future. Geris and Zera lightly toying with each other’s fingers while using their legs as a shield, and then Georg holding his own body close for what he could only assume was comfort and support.

     Slowly but surely, the group began to disperse after a few hours, and soon Georg and Shigure were left at the pier together while everyone else made their way back to the palace. Georg finally took the opportunity to expand on a subject Shigure had earlier dismissed, looking at him while Shigure simply looked out at the never-ending body of water before them. “Shigure, do you want to… talk about earlier? You dismissed it because of Seris, and I guess now that she’s gone, if you wanted to...”

     Shigure sighed deeply and looked at him from his peripheral vision, seeming to think rather deeply on his response before giving it to his lover. “I stayed behind in her room for a bit, but you already knew that. I just… I felt like I needed to stay, to revisit the good times before I shut the door on it.” Georg got a curious look on his face as Shigure spoke his last sentence and turned his head to look at the dark-haired man beside him, and soon he started to expand on it. “I remembered the first night I started staying in the palace, back before Gizel’s men attacked. How we laughed and jabbed at each other once her fake smile finally started to fade away.”

     Georg could see small tears prickling at Shigure’s eyes, and he moved closer to him and held his hand tightly. When Shigure felt the squeeze, he took a breath to get himself together before continuing on. “I remembered the night we made love to each other, which ended up being the night we conceived Geris and Seris.” He sighed deeply and shook his head, soon shifting his gaze to his own feet. “And I remember the last time we spoke to each other, when we said goodbye before she left for her medical training.”

     Feeling all of the emotions his beloved one was emanating, Georg wrapped his arms around his body from the side to give him support. Shigure smiled at him, leaning his head to the side to have Georg’s forehead rest against his temple. “I just felt like in order to truly say goodbye to the good times that we did have, if at this point there were any at all, that I had to revisit them and relive them.”

     He shook his head a bit, seeming to be thinking far too much on the subject – Georg didn’t bother to stop him as he felt it was best to let him get all of his thoughts out of his head on the matter. “Looking back, knowing what I know, I can’t sit here and say there were any good times that were genuine. I don’t think any of it was, not even the day we got married or the night we conceived our own two kids. I saw in her closet in her room – her clothes from Nether Gate were still hung up inside.”

     Georg’s eyes were shocked at that last revelation, his head shaking angrily as he took it in. “That’s sick. She… never did change, I guess.” He sighed and nudged Shigure’s body, looking into his eyes calmly after a few moments. “Hey, let’s go back. It’s going to get cold out soon. By the looks of the sunlight, dinner will be ready for all of us soon too.” Shigure stood up with him, where he was then greeted with a kiss on the forehead by his beloved. “Come on.”

     When they were back at the palace and at the wing of which led to the females’ rooms, Georg looked to Shigure and had a rather curious look on his face. “Would you… come with me to her room? You told us to go ahead earlier, but I couldn’t have stayed then if I wanted to. I couldn’t handle it.”

     His lover thought it over rather deeply and extensively, eyes darting around a bit but not in a frantic manner. Soon he nodded his head, looking to Georg’s eyes. “Of course. Come on.”

     They made their way upstairs and found her room down the hallway, the door holding scratch marks from where Shigure had clawed it earlier in the afternoon. He sighed deeply and took hold of the knob, turning it and pushing the door open for the both of them. Georg looked inside as if he’d never seen the room before, however familiarity for the contents splashed his facial expressions.

     Shigure pushed the door shut behind them, gazing at Georg’s form as he looked around the room and tried to take in his own memories with the now deceased villain of their lives. Georg’s eyes led him to stare at the space between the table and the bed, his hands gripping the edge of the table as he leaned down against it. “That was where she sat as she cried the first time she’d undressed herself in here, when she saw her clothes from Nether Gate.” He shook his head, seeming frustrated with what they now knew. “It doesn’t make sense that someone could just… flip a switch like that and pretend to be traumatized, just for the sake of prolonging injury to someone’s emotions.”

     He finally stepped away from the table, staring at the bed in much of the same way that Shigure had earlier when he stayed behind, and he sat down on the floor to station himself at the side of the bed. “I slept with her here the first night she stayed here. Now I wonder what it was all even for.” After stroking the pillow with his strong fingers for a few moments, he stood up and turned to face the closet, where he looked to Shigure in confusion. “Is that where...”

     Shigure nodded his head in absolute certainty, sternly looking into Georg’s eyes. “Yeah. Open it. That’s where it is.”

     Georg stepped forward and let hesitant hands open the doors to the closet, his eyes immediately able to spot her former uniform from Nether Gate, his eyes turning sad yet sour with anger as he reached forward to touch it. “It… really is still here.” It was at this moment that he removed the uniform from where it hung, moving it to the table to lay it out and stare at it in full. He began to get a sense for just the amount of pain and agony one had to go through in such a group, and his eyes turned to Shigure. “I’m sorry.”

     Shigure cocked an eyebrow and looked taken aback, eyes confused far beyond the description of words. “Sorry? What for?”

     Georg sighed deeply and shook his head as he turned his gaze back to the uniform on the table, hands stroking its material gently. “Sorry for the pain they caused. That somehow we didn’t bite the bullet and stand against Gizel and his father sooner. We had every opportunity to shut all of it down before the engagement ceremony, yet we didn’t want to cause a scene and make them suspicious, so we stood back and just watched it all happen.” He began to grit his teeth together for a few short seconds, hand now balled up into a fist, the material of the uniform scrunched up inside. “We thought we could prevent it all if we stood back, but that was our biggest mistake. It cost us Arshtat and Ferid, countless soldiers from our masses, and the return of everything not only you, but Oboro and Lyon thought had finally been buried with time.”

     Shigure stepped forward and put his hand on the shoulder of the one baring all of the anger and frustration, shaking his head. “Georg, don’t apologize to me or anyone else for this. Nobody could have suspected or prevented what happened that night. You have to understand that Nether Gate operates how no other human being would. There was a reason they were so good at what they did for so long.” He paused for a few seconds, now looking right into Georg’s eyes. “Lyon will tell you everything I would, because that’s what Nether Gate is. They wait until there’s children about with no other family to take care of them, and that’s when they make their move. Before these children even have the slightest idea what love and care really even is, they’ll brainwash them and turn them into their own personal puppets made for murder and bloodshed.”

     Georg simply listened to him as he spoke, eyes now shifting to look to Shigure’s chest. “Georg, trust me when I say that there really was no preventing the events that took place that night. You think you’re two steps ahead of them, and they’re five in front of you. It takes only those who worked with them to truly understand how and why they do what they do, and even despite that… there was a reason he was the Master of that group. With someone like that heading them… being a member was pointless. He was too good for anything we or anyone else could do.”

     He sighed, his thoughts now shifting to his sister as he began to speak deeper and deeper. “Sagiri was the reason I put myself in front of others, to protect them. The reason why I gained such a soft spot for Eris. Now that I look back on all of it, none of it truly… meant a damn thing, did it? My sister was dead and Eris wanted me that way – I became their puppet all over again, just like they wanted. Now that I look back, all of those empty threats they made to kidnap Sagiri only further proves their ways – they’ll say things just to terrify you and keep you tied to them with strings on every limb.”

     He finally looked back to Georg and put his hands on his knees, making direct eye contact with him. “Despite all of that, though… you helped me finally put an end to the suffering of all of us they tortured. I haven’t spoken to Lyon since we returned from the attack on them, but I know for a fact that she’ll forever be as grateful as I am that you were there to help. It doesn’t matter what research I did to get us there after Fuyo told us about Oboro – you made that promise to me years ago, and you never let it go. I’ll never be able to thank you enough for that.”

     Georg leaned forward to kiss Shigure’s lips with passion, looking back into his eyes once he pulled away. “You know I’m always going to be here to help. That’s what I do for the people I love and care about.” Georg finally stood up on his feet again, straightening the chairs back up underneath the table and hanging the uniform back up in the closet. Together, he and Shigure took their leave from Eris’ room, this time shutting the door to everything they’d both lost for good, never to return to any of it.

     Shigure led them down the halls until they reached the center of the two upper wings, Frey and Lyon crossing their paths. “Frey, Lyon – I was actually just looking for you two. I wanted to talk for a bit, if you two aren’t up to anything.”

     Lyon nodded with a smile, both she and Frey following the two other men to the Knight’s Room in the back of the Guard’s Room. They shut the door behind them, taking seats on the couches in the center to get comfortable.

     Lyon stretched out a bit, yawning lightly as she shook her head. “So, what did you want to talk about?”

     Shigure sighed deeply and leaned forward to support his arms against his knees, looking up into her eyes. “I’m sure you already gathered this, but Nether Gate is gone. We killed every last one of them there.”

     He was met with relieved tears and a smile from her, Frey turning to hug her body tightly for a few seconds before she looked back to Shigure. “Thank you, Shigure.”

     He shook his head, looking to Georg before standing up and moving to the window to gaze outside. “Don’t thank me. Georg made me a promise years ago at Barow’s Mansion that he would do whatever he had to in order to put an end to them, and he never let go of that promise. If it weren’t for him, we would have never started the process.”

     Georg turned around to face him, shaking his head and chuckling a bit to himself. “You know damn well that isn’t true. We would have never started even the beginnings of it so early had you not asked me to do it when you did. The only reason we started it so soon was because of you.”

     Shigure shrugged his shoulders, soon looking to Lyon in more of a softer manner. “Lyon, throughout all of the research I did trying to finish what Oboro started, I thought I knew who Eris was. It turns out that we can’t truly know everyone we meet, and as it turns out, she was a prime example of that fact. I remember the day we arrived at Barows’ Mansion, and you confessed to having been a former member of Nether Gate until Ferid rescued you. You let go of your past and returned to who you thought you should be at heart – someone kind and caring, wanting to love and protect people. Thank you for being a reflection of what a former member of their group should be. I haven’t verbalized it, but ever since I read through Eris’ journals, you’ve been helping to remind me that maybe not everyone in this world is as awful as we’d like to think.”

     Lyon blushed a bit, soon returning his smile and nodding her head. “Thank you Shigure. That means a lot, and I’d say it means more than you could ever know… but you of all people know how much it means.”

     He nodded his head and sighed, soon looking deep into her eyes. “I won’t make either of you read them, but if you want to know the truth about her – about Eris – you should go check out the archives about Nether Gate. All of Oboro’s former research, and then what I began to uncover about specific people… it’s all there. We’ve decided to turn Sialeeds’ room into an archive station for the files about Nether Gate and its former members, should we somehow ever need any of it in the future. There’s files on all of us that we know used to participate in their activities – you, Sagiri, Eris and myself. We’re working on uncovering information about Dolph as well, so his files aren’t yet added to the archives… but as for what you’d want to know right now, it’s all there.”

     Lyon sighed and nodded to him, Frey looking into his eyes and watching Georg return to sit by Shigure’s side. “It doesn’t sound like anything pleasant that you dug up.”

     Shigure shook his head and turned his gaze to his own knees, scoffing in disappointment and frustration. “It’s extremely unpleasant, but as I said – if you both want to know the truth about her, her section of files will have everything. From what Nether Gate had written about her, which ultimately was written by Oboro himself, to her own journals… you might want to know who you grew so close to.”

     Frey reached forward and put a hand on his shoulder, giving him a look that he could expand on any of it if he so desired. Shigure sighed deeply and closed his eyes, thinking long and hard on what he was to say before looking back to Frey. “All I’ll say is this, as you should probably find out the rest on your own – if you go into her room and look in her closet, her Nether Gate uniform from when she first arrived here is still hanging inside. We attempted to throw it out back when we had her new clothes, but she swiped it back somehow without us realizing it.”

     Lyon’s mouth gaped open, her eyes shocked and confused all at once. “Okay. Thank you for telling us, Shigure.”

     Frey stood to his feet after he finished speaking, he and Lyon both heading for the door before Shigure stopped them. “Hey, before you go… Don’t repeat any of this to Geris or Seris. Geris is somewhat aware that she wasn’t who we thought, but Seris doesn’t know a thing. I’m still not sure how to break it to her, so just keep all of this between us. Zera is able to speak about it as well – he was there when we read through her journals.”

     Giving confirmation, Frey and Lyon took their leave from the room and left Georg and Shigure by themselves once more. “Do you think they’ll go read them?”

     Georg shrugged his shoulders, a curious yet unsure look on his face. “Maybe. They’ve always been rather curious, those two… but Lyon, I’m not sure. I know there’s still some things about her past that she wouldn’t even want to read about others, much less about herself.”

     Shigure nodded in response, standing back up from the couch he’d sat on earlier, stretching his arms out above his head. “What do we do now?”

     Shigure cocked an eyebrow at him, but his confusion was soon alleviated with another sentence from Georg. “We took them out, we found out everything else… We’ve done everything there is that we needed to do. What else is there?”

     Shigure sighed and moved to the window, staring out at the beautiful landscape before his eyes. “Well, I guess now we live. Without her. I don’t know whether to say I’m happy to live without her, or that I’ll miss her. Both feel so wrong to say, yet so right at the same time.” He turned to look back to Georg, eyes holding a newfound purpose. “Other than that, find out how to tell this to Seris and Geris. She knows nothing, but at least Geris has a bit of an idea that she’s not who we all thought.”

     Georg finally made his way to the door, looking to Shigure again. “I think right now, we try to focus on the future. We’ll have to hold another Sacred Games, after all, since at the end of it all, there was no winner announced – not with everything that ended up happening.”

     Shigure nodded, soon heading out of the room with Georg and straight into the hall outside. “Let’s go talk with Euram about that. We’ll have to arrange it sooner than expected, as Arsleia is the one in line for the throne.”

     They took themselves to the Queen’s Chambers, where Euram was working on some paperwork at the desk. He looked up and stood to his feet, stepping toward the two slowly. “Zera came to see me a short while ago – he informed me of everything. If you two need anything at all, let me know and I’ll arrange for it.”

     Shigure shook his head, taking his stride over to the desk and leaning back against it. “I think we all know of a more pressing matter, Euram. About your daughter, perhaps.”

     Euram sighed and nodded his head, looking to the papers on his desk. “Of course – what else? I’ve been working on the papers like a madman, trying to arrange for another Games to take place since we never announced a winner, what-with Lym’s death at the previous event. Arsleia is already well aware, but the next games are to be held about a month from now. These papers are simply just small details of some new laws and such.”

     With that one sentence, his gaze returned to Shigure and then Georg, who both looked confused. “We’re well aware that certain… couples are subject to criticism, with the laws that are currently in power. We’re arranging for it that no such thing shall be allowed to exist. We believe we should be able to choose who we wish to spend our lives with without fear of criticism and hatred.” With a nod from Shigure, he continued. “We’re also pushing forward a law for there to be no further Sacred Games taking place after this one. Having someone’s love imposed upon you – it’s… not right, and we’ll have no more of it.”

     Shigure opened his mouth to speak, but Euram went to his stack of papers and pulled out some from the bottom of the pile. He returned his gaze to Shigure, showing him the papers. “We’re also now pushing a law into power, with agreement already coming from the Senate, that those who partake in any activities related to Nether Gate will suffer the fate of execution. I’m well aware from Zera what Eris had done, and I’ll allow nobody else to do the same.”

     Shigure pulled Euram into a hug, hiding his face against the space between his neck and shoulder. He murmured a muffled statement of gratitude before pulling away after a moment, smiling at him. “Sagiri and Oboro would be so proud right now. They’d be thanking you now too, all the same as I am.”

     Euram put the papers back into their place in the stack, stretching a bit before looking to the door. “The laws will be put into place before the Games, allowing us to put that cushion into place well in advance. I won’t allow another Games to take place like that of Arsleia’s previous, or even Lym’s. It was disgraceful to this country, and those displays aren’t at all who we as a country represent. I’ve already seen a list of the participants, and among them are some who participated in her first Games – Alexander, Marina and Belcoot’s son, and Toma, who you both are no doubt acquainted with.”

     Georg nodded, leaning back against the wall and looking to Euram with stern eyes. “Euram, Arshtat and Ferid aren’t here to say so, and neither is Lym… but on their behalf, thank you for everything you’ve done. You may have gotten caught up in some trouble back then, but I think you’ve more than proven that you’ve since changed for the better. Frey wouldn’t have trusted his sister’s life into your hands otherwise. You’ve done a great job as the new commander of the Queen’s Knights, and we’ve been gaining trust from all sorts of places that we didn’t before, simply because of Frey’s ties to his mother’s faulty name.”

     Euram smiled, shaking his head and walking over to the window to gaze outside before going back to the desk and leaning against it. “Georg, all I ever wanted was to protect Lym from whatever powers may have been threatening her life. When I’d heard what happened here at the palace when Her Majesty and His Majesty had passed, I was devastated but more relieved that she was at least guaranteed safety here inside of these walls. My father was pulling all sorts of strings, and while I may have helped out along the way, I wasn’t in any position to turn down anything he told me to do. So I simply followed orders.”

     Shigure sighed deeply and nodded his head, looking up to Georg. “That’s how Nether Gate operated, right down to the core. Salum and Nether Gate, as well as Marscal Godwin… they all had ties with one another, whether they would have openly admitted it or not. Had they all joined up together, the three of them… there’s no telling what would have happened.”

     Georg shifted his gaze to Shigure as he spoke, but then returned it to Euram. “I told Shigure earlier that I was sorry for the pain Nether Gate caused them back then, but even sorrier that they’d returned. I told him… had we acted out against the Godwins sooner, maybe even stopped them at the Games for Lym, things might have turned out differently. Arshtat and Ferid might still be here, and maybe even possibly we’d have found out about Eris’ plans earlier than this.”

     Shigure stopped him, interjecting with what he’d responded with earlier. “But I told him that with Gizel having been working with the remnants of Nether Gate, there wasn’t anything that could have been done, because Nether Gate operates how no other human being would.”

     Euram walked over to Georg, looking into his eyes with shame as he spoke again. “Georg, I’m… deeply apologetic for the tragedies that befell all of us, both at Lymsleia’s Games and any time afterward. I’m also sorry for my own stupidity in the past. I simply did as I was told and wasn’t thinking of the consequences that would follow afterward, and for that I am deeply sorry. Had we stopped the decision to have Zegai pulled from the games, we could have won it all – become her husband so long ago, and then your name wouldn’t have been sullied in the name of the pride of the Godwins.”

     Georg shook his head, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Euram, it’s not your fault. We knew it back then that you didn’t know about Zegai, but as you no doubt heard afterward, even if we had spoken up about him not truly being involved with those spies, it wouldn’t have changed anything about the perception of him that people had. It wouldn’t have been worth it.”

     Euram sighed with a small nod, eyes looking away as he turned around. He strode back to the desk, picking up a framed picture of Lymsleia from its surface. “Georg, Shigure… I’ve but one favor to ask of you. This is something I’ve been dreading for quite some time now, and I’d rather not stop it due to the fact that preventing it would cause more harm than good, believe it or not. Dolph, Childerich and the Godwins had a certain accomplice that would help orchestrate and carry out some of their missions, from partaking in behind-the-scenes work to being out in the field with them on occasion. Ever since their downfall years ago and hearing that I eventually became wedded to Lymsleia, Oboro made me aware as soon as he was able that said accomplice was waiting for the right moment to strike me down.”

     Shigure’s mouth gaped open a bit, Georg nodding his head in understanding before letting Euram speak again. “I don’t know where or when, but should that become my fate, I entrust Arsleia’s life into your hands. The only reason I would then face my fate head-on is simply because this accomplice is the last known tie to Nether Gate that exists, however Oboro knew of this individual long enough to be sure that pacifying them will simply keep them quiet. Let them have their way with my life, and they’ll keep to themselves.”

     Georg slammed his hand on the wall, glaring him down angrily. “Euram, are you mad?! We could easily just end them and be done with this!”

     Euram sighed deeply and turned his head away from the two men, staring at the framed photo of his widow with tears beginning to fill his eyes. “Do you want the real reason?” He was faced with silence, which he responded to with the reason itself. “I have been… so lost and alone ever since Lymsleia was taken from us. I haven’t begun to know what to do with myself or how to go on without her...” He clenched his eyes shut, a tear rolling down his cheek as he turned to face the two men behind him once more. “I’ve been dealing with the pain on my own so that Arsleia could continue her studies undisturbed, without unrest… but now it’s caught up to me and I’ve no idea how to go on without her.”

     Georg sighed deeply and approached Euram, taking the photo out of his hands and setting it down on the desk. He then pulled him closely and wrapped his arms around his shaking frame, Euram’s hands shakily grabbing at the back of Georg’s clothes. “Euram, listen to me. Your life being ended isn’t the way out of this. If something ever happens and she needs parents, we’ll do it… but not like this. Never like this, do you understand?” He felt Euram’s head nod against his chest as he began to sob heavily, and he closed his eyes and tightened his hold on him. “It’ll be okay Euram… you just have to believe that it will be.”

     Shigure was about to approach them when Arsleia was standing in the doorway with Frey and Lyon, her eyes wide open in shock. “E-Excuse me – I’m sorry, I-”

     Shigure shook his head and ushered them out of the chambers, exiting with them and closing the door behind him. “What is it?”

     Arsleia shook her head and looked at the door before turning her gaze to Shigure’s face, which was still covered by his fluffy brown hair that he hadn’t cut in years. “I was just coming to retrieve some of the papers from the desk so that I could deliver them to the Senate. What’s wrong with father?”

     Shigure shook his head, rubbing her head gently as a notion to drop the subject. “Don’t worry about it right now. It’s nothing you should bother worrying yourself over. He’ll tell you if he feels he should.”

     Arsleia sighed and nodded, hesitantly letting it go so that Shigure wouldn’t be irritated with her. “I was also coming to tell you that Seris has been rather… distraught. She has requested your presence, Shigure. I’m not so sure of her… stability, so I would highly suggest you go see her. Zera and Geris are with her, so I’m certain she won’t do anything to herself, but I am still worried for her.”

     Shigure nodded and smiled to her, hugging her for a few seconds. “Thank you, Arsleia. I’ll go see her now then. Wait for Georg and Euram to come out and they’ll see to it that you go do what you need to do.”

     He took his leave from the three and made his way to his daughter’s room, knocking on the door and inhaling before calling out through the wooden object before him. “Seris, it’s dad. Can I come in?” After being given confirmation, he turned the knob and pushed the door open, his heart broken at how torn apart his daughter looked in front of him.

     She sat on the bed and looked up at him, giving him an exhausted look before looking away from him. Geris frowned and sat beside her again, holding her around her shoulders. “She hasn’t said much to us since we came up.”

     Shigure thought over and over whether or not he should tell them the truth, specifically Seris. Finally, he knelt down in front of her and put his hands on her knees, looking into her eyes with sorrow in his own. “I need you to listen to me, okay? You need to know what really happened.”

     Zera looked at him almost frantically, eyes desperate for him to stop. “Shi-Sir, I really don’t think you should-”

     “I know. I shouldn’t, but I have to. Not just you, Seris – Geris too. Both of you need to know what really happened, and who your mother really was.” Shigure looked back into his daughter’s eyes, squeezing her knees before pulling the chair from her desk over to sit down in front of her.

     Before she could even respond to anything he said, he started to speak again as she kept eye contact the whole time. “Your mother was in Nether Gate for the longest time before Ferid went and rescued her upon their attack on the facility. Unfortunately, this was all part of her plan to tangle us in her web of lies. She used everything she learned about and from us to have something on every one of us as we helped her along, and when it finally came down to it all… she never truly cared for any of us. She never let go of her habits from Nether Gate – she never wanted to.”

     Seris’ eyes were wide with curiosity, shock but also full of understanding, her head nodding slowly as Geris looked to his father as well. Zera simply sat on Seris’ other side, hands in his lap and head lowered with his eyes shut as he listened to Shigure explain it all.

     “We found most of this out through her journals, but the worst of it came from when I was looking through Oboro’s former research of Nether Gate, her files. I found that before her journals, and in her files read that she volunteered herself in Nether Gate to end Sagiri’s life when she was only fifteen, and I sixteen, both of us still in Nether Gate ourselves. I told Zera and Geris this myself, but I never saw myself facing any one of her tormentors in the face, much less find myself falling in love with one of them… but the thought that I actually conceived children with the woman who killed her makes me sick.”

     Seris was about to say something before her father reached forward to grab her hands, looking down at them when he started to speak again. “I was going to wait to tell you until I was sure you could handle it, but Arsleia came to me saying you were asking for me. She told me how bad you were feeling, and I knew I had to tell you the truth now.”

     Seris sighed deeply and soon smiled at her father, wiping her tears away and leaning forward to close the distance between them and hug him. “Knowing you’re still here and willing to love and care for us… That alone is enough to pull me through. I’m glad you told me, because now looking back, a lot of things make a lot of sense.”

     Shigure nodded to her, soon standing back to his feet and placing the chair back under her desk. He stretched his arms out above his head for a few seconds before turning back to the door and opening it. “Oh, by the way. Arsleia’s Sacred Games are coming up in about a month, so make sure you’re ready. This is going to be the last Sacred Games – both Euram and Arsleia don’t want there to be anything else after this.”

* * *

     Within a few weeks, Shigure had gotten everything ready with Georg to have everyone take off for Stormfist. Their plan was to stay the week prior to the event, then through the Games and then for a couple of days afterward. Arsleia had remained unusually close to Shigure the entire time they were on the ship to Stormfist, thus remaining close to Georg as well. Euram had tried to ease her nerves in any way possible, but she wasn’t truly having it.

     Once everyone was settled into their own rooms on the upper floor of the arena, Arsleia had gone with Georg and Shigure to the room they were going to share together, having some things she wanted to discuss with them.

     She sat herself down on the bed and stared up at them, waiting until one of them had shut the door to ensure their privacy. “I just wanted to have some reassurance that you two are positive that nothing is going to happen this time.”

     Georg knelt down in front of her and made full eye contact with her, nodding his head sternly and taking her hands into his own. “We’re sure. We’ve made sure to employ every guard we can, and we’ll have guards from Sable and Estrise also here to help us out. Trust me – we’ve spared no expenses in making sure everything will be safe this time. Nothing is going to happen to you or anybody else – that’s been made sure of.”

     Arsleia smiled at him and nodded her head, looking to Shigure and her expression immediately changing to that of concern. “Shigure – how are you feeling about these games?”

     He looked at her as she suddenly called for his attention, his eyes full of curiosity at first but then just full of his hesitance and uncertainty. “Well, I do feel better now that we’ve employed more guards than last time, but I’m still paranoid. You don’t just forget about things like that, and if Sagiri were still here she’d tell you the same thing. Frey and Lyon over in the next room will also tell you the same thing – Oboro would as well. So I’m still concerned something will happen again, but I mostly feel like everything will be fine this time.”

     She smiled at him as she did Georg, standing to her feet and stretching her arms out just a bit. “Well, I’m happy to hear how you feel about it. Georg, come with me. Let’s go speak with Lyon and Frey, then father as well.”

     Georg followed her out of the room, leaving Shigure by himself to shut the door behind them. They carried themselves to the room Lyon and Frey were sharing for the moment, entering after knocking and being granted permission.

     “Hey guys. What are you two here for today?” Lyon smiled at them as she was tidying up a couple of things around the room, soon finishing her task and turning around to face them while Frey had already given them his full attention.

     Arsleia sat in the chair after Georg pulled it up for her, her lips uttering a quiet statement of gratitude before talking to Frey. “Frey, I wanted to come and see how you were feeling about these Games. We don’t have to discuss what happened in that hallway the last time we were here, but I just want to know how you feel.”

     Frey looked at the desk beside him before turning his gaze back to his future Queen, eyes full of distant sorrow and grief. “I… I’m anxious about going through with this, Arsleia, but I trust everyone has done what they need to do to make this one safe. I don’t exactly know how ready I am to face the Games yet after the last ones, but this country now needs a Queen – so we just have to go on with our lives now. A lot happened, but this is what we have to do. I’m not ready for this, no doubt, but I’m ready to move on.”

     Arsleia nodded and sighed deeply, soon looking into his eyes and giving him a look of comfort. “We do – it was inevitable from the moment it happened here so many months ago now. However, despite mourning continuing on even after the mourning period has ended, you’re right. Falena needs its Queen now, and that means we have to do this, whether we want to or not.”

     Frey smiled at her and soon turned to fully face her, looking into her eyes. “So Ars, is there anyone you’re hoping will win?”

     She blushed a bit, looking off to the side and twiddling her fingers and thumbs around. “Alexander. He’s been rather kind to me in times past, and at the banquets we’ve had, he’s always been pleasurable company to keep by my side. He’s been proven very trustworthy during past escorts, and I feel he would make a wonderful father someday, assuming he’ll turn out anything close to how Belcoot and Marina are.”

     Lyon tilted her head in confusion, cocking one of her eyebrows up. “You’re the only one who is able to make a solid decision here. Why not just call the whole thing off and pick him out among the rest?”

     Arsleia’s thoughts stopped in that instant, her eyes staring off to the floor ahead of them. “I… don’t know. I didn’t ever stop to think of that as a viable option. I would have to consult father about it, though. With all of the preparations having already been made and competitors already here preparing themselves, I feel it would end up being a waste of their time to come here just for that announcement.”

     Frey shook his head, putting his hand on her shoulder. “They’ll understand if you don’t want to do this. Given past events, plus the last Games, I don’t think anybody could blame you for suddenly calling it off. I would say just do what feels right for you.”

     After a few moments of thinking, Arsleia finally looked back up into Frey’s eyes. “I’m going to go rejoin Shigure and Georg across the hallway. Would you two go retrieve Alexander from the inn in town? He should be there with Belcoot and Marina now.”

     Frey and Lyon set off to go into town while Arsleia stood back to her feet to rejoin the two older men across the hall that she’d clung to for quite some time on the trip there. She waited with them and had explained the situation to them, where Georg retrieved Euram to give him the rundown as well.

     Once Frey and Lyon had returned with Alexander, Arsleia greeted him with a sweet smile. “Hello Alexander. Did Frey and Lyon explain to you why you were summoned?” With a shake of his head, he sat down on the bed across from her and looked into her eyes. “I have come to the decision on my own accord that I wish for these Games to be canceled. I have other news to share with you as well, though we can discuss this privately in just a little while.”

     Alexander nodded his head to her, looking to Euram and then back into her eyes. “Was there any particular reason?” She nodded but then shifted her gaze to the door, standing up and waiting for him. “We can go off to discuss this now, then. I’ll return soon, father.”

     They left the room to go back to her own, where she sat on her bed and he at the desk. “I didn’t wish to force you into discussing this in front of the others, so I thought it best to excuse ourselves. I’ve grown rather fond of you and wished for you to win over others, even if it might come off as favoritism. Lyon gave me the idea to just cancel them and pick you out over the rest, and to make an announcement later on that the Games were no longer taking place.”

     Alexander’s cheeks became tinted a bit, his gaze shifting to his feet. “Me? I’m honored, Your Highness.” He paused, soon returning his gaze to her eyes. “Do you know why I entered the games?” Arsleia shook her head, and with that Alexander continued to speak. “Mom and dad both talked with me about what happened before we were born, and what happened specifically to Arshtat and Ferid, then to Lymsleia. He always wanted to make it up to her, and when I heard what happened to her at these previous Games, I knew I wanted to win to protect you.”

     Arsleia sighed deeply and reached her hand up, wiping away a single tear that threatened to fall from her eye. She smiled at him, nodding her head. “Thank you, Alexander. It means a great deal to hear you say something like this, after all that’s happened. After all of the banquets and escorts you’ve carried out for me, I knew I wanted to be with you for more than just a mission. If you’re anything like your parents, like you are now, you’ll be an exceptional husband, and a wonderful father someday.”

     He greeted her with a soft smile, soon getting out of the chair and kneeling down in front of her. “Your Highness Arsleia, I may not have any physical items to impart upon you that will resemble such a question, but I ask for permission to have your hand in marriage.” She took his hand after he held it out for her, his lips gently kissing the skin on the back of her hand. Afterward, he reached down to carefully draw his sword and place it in her lap. “Then I hereby draw my sword and place it in your care, all to symbolize my promise to protect your mind, body and soul, from this day forth.”

     She took her hands and held both of his own, looking into his eyes for a few short seconds before leaning forward to kiss his lips with passion. The sword fell from her lap and clanged loudly on the floor, which took her attention away from him as the sound startled her just a bit. She picked up the blade by the hilt, handing it back to Alexander. “I look forward to a long life with you.”

     “And I with you, Arsleia.”

     They both stood up and made their way back across the hall to the others, both smiling in each other’s presences. Euram noticed the two standing close together, and he turned his attention to his daughter. “Arsleia, have you spoken with him?”

     She nodded to him, smiling sweetly before taking herself over to the window to gaze outside as she spoke. “Yes, I have. I wish to cancel the Games, and sooner rather than later, Alexander has agreed that he wishes to take my hand in marriage. I wish to have a messenger relay this information to Marina and Belcoot either by the time we leave here or after.”

     Euram smiled at her from behind her, even if she couldn’t see it. “I’m happy you’ve stood your ground for what you want, dear. I never wanted that life for you, and I’m so very happy you won’t have to live it.”

     Later in the afternoon of that day, an announcement was posted all over town to notify the contestants of the games that they were canceled. Though some were disappointed, all agreed to hold a banquet instead to congratulate Arsleia and Alexander on their engagement, even if the ceremony hadn’t taken place yet.

* * *

     The next day, they all took off on the ship to return to Sol-Falena. Upon arriving back at the palace, someone came to greet Shigure and Georg in the foyer. A rather unwanted yet familiar face – Dolph. Georg was at the ready to draw his sword, though Dolph appeared to be unwilling to fight, and thus Shigure held his arm out in front of Georg to stop him. “What is the meaning of this? How have you entered without being stopped?”

     Dolph sighed deeply and looked away from them, watching his surroundings before bringing his gaze very hesitantly back to Shigure’s eyes. “Not here. Go retrieve Lyon, Frey and Erismar for me.”

     Shigure sighed deeply and closed his eyes, shaking his head. “I can’t do that. She’s no longer alive. I can have Georg go retrieve Frey and Lyon, though, and we can go upstairs to my room to talk.”

     Together, he and Dolph took themselves to Shigure’s room while Georg departed to go take Frey and Lyon to his room as well. When Lyon saw Dolph sitting at the desk, she nearly drew her sword in anticipation of an attack. “What the hell are you-”

     Shigure shook his head, standing up and facing Lyon cautiously. “Lyon, wait. He has news for us, and you need to listen.”

     Although hesitantly, Lyon stood against the wall across from Dolph, staring at him cautiously. “What are you here for, Michafute? What do you want with us? We killed you – how are you alive?”

     He shook his head and looked at his arms, then back up into her eyes. “I didn’t really overdose on the drug. I was bluffing the both of you – when Frey took his rune’s power to me, I simply used my own to vanish before the Dawn Rune’s full effect was placed upon me. I knew I had to live, because while I always followed the order of the Godwins, I was mislead into thinking that it was what I was truly meant for. That they had Falena’s best interests at heart and in mind, though I quickly began to learn otherwise.”

     Lyon cocked an eyebrow and stared him down, unsure of anything he was saying. “How can we be sure you’re not lying to us?”

     Dolph sighed deeply as he stared at Shigure next, giving him a look of remorse. “I always found Erismar’s desires rather… appalling, if you will. Nether Gate always idolized her ways as the ideal student, the ideal member, and what they represented. I simply followed orders as I was trying to also do what was best for this country, even if the methods were rather extreme. Though when it came to her and how they idolized her, I knew it was wrong. There was never an out, though when you took the rune to me Frey, I knew it was the only chance I would get to move away from their ways.”

     He took a breath and continued on, looking to Georg, then Frey, and finally back to Lyon again. “I found myself back at the cabin in the Western Woods, where the thugs had taken Marina. I recuperated there until I was well enough to use my rune again, and I finally tracked down Erismar’s father, where I learned that I was her brother.”

     Lyon’s mouth gaped open, and she shook her head before responding to him with a cautious tone. “Prove it.”

     Dolph’s hands rummaged through his pockets before pulling out a rolled up paper. Lyon swiped it from him, opening it to reveal a certificate of birth – two, in fact. One for Erismar, whose name was written as Elisia Le’Claire. The other certificate was for Dolph, whose name was written as Alistair Le’Claire, a photo of each as a baby on the respective papers.

     Lyon’s eyes slowly gazed back up to Dolph’s own, her own full of shock and surprise. “You… weren’t lying. Then wait, why are you here?”

     “I wanted to present this information to you, as well as give my deepest apologies for all that I had done. I cannot change the past, however I would like to believe that I could put forth my efforts to do good for you all, even if it’s cleaning the palace floors to make your lives easier.”

     Georg shook his head, soon giving an optimistic look. “We won’t have you doing that in particular, but as long as you walk the straight and narrow, we wouldn’t mind having you here. Frey, how do you feel about this?”

     Frey gave Dolph a look of uncertainty, sighing deeply as he shifted his gaze to the floor. “I… don’t know how to feel. You helped bring on the attack, which led to my parents getting killed. You don’t seem eager to do evil though, and it’s throwing me off – a lot. I want to prevent history from repeating itself, but I don’t want to throw away good help either. You appear as if you can redeem yourself, and I want to believe you.”

     Lyon rubbed her former prince’s shoulder for comfort, soon looking back to Dolph. “You said you found her father. How long ago was this?”

     Dolph raised his eyebrows, shaking his head. “Not any more than maybe a few months ago.”

     She looked to Frey again, giving him a hopeful look. “If we go find him, we can find out for sure whether or not he’s being truthful.”

     With a nod from Frey, Shigure stepped forward and took his stride over to Dolph. “We can go find him. Georg, you’ll come with us. I can’t imagine this will be too hard of a trip, so we won’t need too many people.”

     Frey stepped forward, joining them. “I’ll go with you as well. I need to know for myself before we make any final decisions and bring him back here. We’ll have to talk to Euram and Ars about it before we finalize any of it though, so be prepared for that.”

     Dolph followed each of them to the supply room, where they stocked up on food, water and healing items, should they need them through their travels. He stopped them before they exited the room, shaking his head. “I wish for you all to address me as Alistair. Though if Dolph is easier for now, I understand. Second, I urge you all to approach her father with care. He has yet to hear of the news of her death, I’m sure. His home is worn down, and due to his old age, he has yet to rebuild it. He is living the best life possible, so keep this in mind when we approach the area.”

     Together, the four of them finally exited the upstairs area of the palace to the foyer, where Dolph instructed Viki to teleport them to the West Palace. Confused when they arrived there, Dolph turned his attention to Frey. “He lives in the wooded areas just outside of here. He didn’t wish to be surrounded by too much civilization – that’s what he told me when we spoke.”

* * *

     After a few more hours of traveling through the woods, they approached a shack in the far corners. It wasn’t too beaten up, however it was clear that improvements could be made here and there to the walls and roof. Dolph reached his hand up to knock on the door, and an elderly voice called out from beyond the walls to the door. “Just one moment.”

     They waited until the door was swung open, revealing an elderly man walking with but a cane in his hand to help him with his stability. “Hello again, Alistair. I see you’ve brought company this time.” When everyone simply stared at him, he chuckled and stood to the side. “All of you need not just stand there – come in. I have some company of my own at the moment, so tea is already out for us.”

     Shigure stepped forward after Dolph entered the shack, his eyes wide with anger and shock as he saw someone he least expected. Dolph put his hand on Shigure’s shoulder, shaking his head. “You might see her, but this is what he does by nature. His rune is in effect at all times, forcing his body to take the form of whatever person is affecting his company most. For instance, it appears to me to be Gizel.”

     Shigure sighed deeply and approached the body standing before him, hands trembling as he could swear he were staring Eris in the face. “I see her, but...”

     Georg cocked an eyebrow, looking from the person to Shigure. “I see Arshtat. I guess you see Eris, don’t you?”

     With but a nod, Shigure took a seat on the floor, feeling his body grow weak with all of the things he felt. Dolph turned to look at him, soon looking back to Frey. “Who do you see?”

     Frey swallowed the lump growing in his throat, staring at the person in front of him, who was taking the form of Lymsleia. He felt a few tears enter his eyes, his lower lip trembling slightly before he shook it off. “I see Lym.”

     Georg walked to him and put his hands on his shoulders for comfort, looking to the elderly man finally. “We’re so sorry. He shocked us quite a bit, so we haven’t introduced ourselves. I’m Georg, and this is Frey and Shigure. As we’ve heard, you already know Do-I mean, Alistair.”

     The elderly man chuckled and shook his head, taking his seat once more. “It’s quite alright. I was rather shocked as well when I first met him. His name is Raizen. He doesn’t speak too often, though he visits with me every single day.” He reached forward to take his cup into his hands, sipping his tea before placing it back on the table in front of him. “My name is Arsen. It is wonderful to meet all of you. So Alistair, what have you brought these wonderful people here for today?”

     Frey stepped forward and looked into his eyes, a rather curious yet calm look on his face. “Alistair came to us bearing news of his and his sister’s identities, and he wished to help us. I was rather skeptical of his words, and I wished to come here to see you so that I could find out for myself whether or not he was being truthful to us.”

     Arsen nodded his head, slowly standing back up and wandering to the far corner of his shack. He rummaged through a box and pulled out a few papers, identical to the ones Dolph had shown earlier in the afternoon. “This should tell you what you’re wishing to know, yes? I was rather skeptical of him as well when he first arrived, and let me tell you, I was unsure whether or not I could trust him.”

     Frey opened the papers up to reveal the exact information Dolph had shown them previously, his eyes calming immediately and hands giving the papers back to Arsen. “Thank you, sir.”

     Dolph stepped forward and looked to Arsen, then back to Frey. “Sir, you should sit back down. We have something to tell you.”

     Shigure stood up and took another seat across from Arsen’s chair, sighing deeply as he fought his instincts to hide the information from him. He knew it was right to tell him – that was his daughter. Right or wrong as she was, he deserved to know every word.

     When Arsen finally sat back down, he looked to Shigure with weary eyes. “Sir, I became wedded to your daughter years ago, long after she was rescued from Nether Gate. We learned recently, however, that she killed my sister when still following their ways at the facility, and eventually planned to do the same to us, even after the birth of our children. I executed her where she stood, unable to bear the thought that she could possibly do the same thing to us or anyone else that she did to my sister.”

     Arsen remained calm throughout his entire explanation, his head simply nodding as he looked to Raizen for just a few short seconds before returning his gaze to Shigure. “Although I heard about this not too long ago from Raizen here, I thank you for your honesty. Raizen here brought the news to me just a few nights ago, from the West Palace itself. He’s been my way of knowing what has gone on in the world beyond these walls, beyond these woods. When I had heard long ago how far along she had gotten with Nether Gate before her liberation, I had my doubts that she’d ever truly let go of her ways. Needless to say, hearing of her execution didn’t surprise me as much as you’d think.”

     Shigure sighed deeply, nodding his head. He looked back to Georg and then back to Arsen, looking deep into his eyes. “I’m sorry we couldn’t bring her to see you, though I think given the circumstances, it’s better we weren’t able to. Despite all of that, our children are so beautiful – I’d love for you to meet them one day. We could take you with us to the palace to see them.”

     Arsen placed his hands on his own lap, smiling and nodding his head. “That would be wonderful, Shigure. Allow me to get together some of my belongings for the trip, and then we shall be on our way. Raizen, would you like to come along?”

     All of a sudden, an orb was placed onto the table and the person who each saw someone different all began to see the same person. His hair draped down to his knees and was as white as the snow, his eyes a deep blue like the ocean. He had fair but pale skin, and stood at just shorter than Georg. “Ah, yes sir. I would love to – Sir Frey, would this be alright?”

     Frey, though he was confused by the sudden change in appearance, nodded his head and smiled. “Of course, we would love to have you with us.”

     Raizen finally gathered his thoughts, chuckling a bit at Frey’s shock. “Ah, I’ve studied Runes all of my childhood and now into my current age of adolescence, and I decided it best to remove my rune for the trip to the palace. I figured it might not be wise to continue holding it to my body surrounded by so many people.”

     Once Arsen had finished gathering a few things here and there, everyone exited the shack to head back to the palace. Once at the West Palace, Frey used the mirror to get back to Viki in the foyer. When they were about to head upstairs, a guard at the side door stopped them to notify them that Arsleia was with Euram in the Queen’s Chambers.

     They headed inside after going through the Audience Chamber, shielding Dolph from immediate view. Shigure took the lead with Arsen and Raizen standing on either side of him, his eyes locating Euram immediately as he sat at the desk. “Euram, there’s someone here that came to us earlier in the day. You’ve had certain business with him before, and before you grow suspicious of him, please hear him out.”

     Euram nodded his head and watched Shigure step back and out of the way, allowing Dolph to be seen. “Hello Euram. It has been… quite a long time since our last meeting. I hope you’ve been well.” With but a nod from Euram, he sighed and looked to Arsleia before continuing on with his explanation. “I would first like to apologize on behalf of not only myself but Gizel as well. Marscal Godwin always led me to believe that what they were doing for Falena was right, and I simply followed his orders – his orders were to serve his son, and so I did.”

     He paused for a few short seconds to breathe, soon looking back into Euram’s eyes. “I had no right or reason to abandon my orders, so I remained at their sides. However, as I began to hear more and more about how far Erismar was taking herself in our tasks, and I witnessed how much both they and Nether Gate idolized her as an ideal member and a prime reflection of their ways, I began to question just what I was doing not only with myself but for the country. When Lyon and Frey took me down in the ruins of Ashtwal before reaching Marscal Godwin, Frey used the Dawn Rune’s power on me. Before it could eradicate my existence, I used my own rune to teleport myself out of the area – to finally escape what I had been doing.”

     Finally, Arsen stepped forward and placed a hand on Dolph’s shoulder, smiling at Euram before growing a bit serious. “He found me in the forested regions outside of the West Palace, after coming to learn that I was Erismar’s father. As it would turn out, Dolph here is my son – his name from birth was Alistair Le’Claire. I have papers should you be doubtful of this information, though he wishes to serve this palace and help restore order to this country – to do right by it, if you would allow him this opportunity. He’s been visiting me for several months now, proving his worth by just doing right by me – I think he’s turned himself around.”

     Euram sighed deeply, finally looking to Arsleia for the answer. “Dear, what do you think we should do?”

     Arsleia stepped forward to stand right in front of Dolph, placing her hands on his arms and looking right into his eyes. “I say we hold on to him. Arshtat and Ferid helped Lyon when they rescued her, and while we aren’t rescuing him, I believe we can help him all the same as they did her.” She turned her attention to the attendants in the room that stood by the door, looking stern. “Go upstairs and have a bedroom prepared for him, as well as a hot bath – he looks exhausted and dirty. Also, have the cooks in the kitchen prepare an extra plate at dinner.”

     Dolph looked at her with shocked eyes, soon shaking it off and kneeling down in front of her. “Your Highness, I apologize for the atrocities that I helped to carry out in times past, atrocities that helped to eradicate not only Her Majesty Arshtat and His Majesty Ferid, but later helped to pave the way to your late mother’s demise as well. I will do my best from this day forth to do right by this country, as well as you and your father and those who protect you.”

     Arsleia placed a hand on his head, closing her eyes for a few seconds before kneeling down in front of him as well. She placed the index and ring fingers of her right hand under his chin, lifting it up to having him look into her eyes. “Thank you for taking the steps to atone for your previous sins. While my mother was always one for recklessness in times long past us, she always believed that even the most tainted souls could redeem themselves. I see it within you that you are capable of the very same, and that you’ll be a great addition to our home here.”

     After a few more words from Arsleia and Euram, everyone was dismissed to go do as they pleased. Georg returned to his room for some much needed rest, while Frey went to return to Lyon’s side. Arsen and Raizen stayed behind with Shigure and Dolph, and they went back to the foyer to discuss their next plans of action. Raizen and Arsen had both been offered a permanent residence within the castle walls, and while hesitant, they both accepted the offer with open arms.

     Before departing upstairs, Frey had lent the two his mirror so that they could transport their items from the shack to the castle as they needed, with the help of Logg and Kisara who were more than ready and willing to help.

     Shigure and Dolph were left to each other, and Dolph requested they go upstairs to his bath. Shigure was hesitant but took the opportunity as he could finally talk things out with the once vile human being he’d dealt with during his times in Nether Gate.

     Once they were inside and Dolph had gotten himself undressed and into his bath, he sat back and looked to Shigure. “You’re free to join me if you wish. I’m not a killer anymore.”

     Shigure scoffed and looked away, shaking his head. “Yeah, well they all say that. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were hiding a knife down your fucking throat or something, with how sadistic you always were.”

     Dolph sighed and looked at him with saddened eyes, soon closing them to pour some of the hot water over his face to wash it. “Look, you don’t have to – I just know that sitting in the hot water always seemed to help me. Aside from that, you weren’t the only one to suffer abuse at the hands of any of them.” Before Shigure could respond with something distasteful, Dolph looked back at him. “I don’t mean that in a demeaning way. I’m just saying that you aren’t the only one sitting in this room who’s ever suffered at their hands.”

     Dolph started to stand and before Shigure could say a word, his eyes were widened and filling with tears. His eyes now bore witness to scars and ingrained welts around the thighs, hips and groin area, even his shaft covered with a few welts here and there. Shigure stepped forward and placed a hand on Dolph’s left hip, his breath releasing in a very staggered manner. “Who did this to you?”

     Dolph heard Shigure sob before he could respond, his hands reaching to wipe away his tears. “Gizel. Whenever there was a mission I was told to go out on or a task to complete, and it wasn’t completed correctly, he would inflict wounds upon my body to reflect his anger. All of this was his anger. When he died, I was actually rather fearful as Marscal Godwin was always worse than his son. Gizel was the preferable master in this instance, because I would have rather feared sexual repercussions than death.”

     Shigure let go of his hip and sighed deeply, stepping back and beginning to strip himself of his clothing. “I’ll join you then. Sit back down, and I can start to talk about Eris if you want.”

     Dolph simply nodded, sitting himself back down and submerging his body in the hot water once again. He sighed in content, the warmth working its magic on his tense muscles and limbs. “This feels good. I’ve been bathing in streams ever since I began wandering about on my own.” When he received a look of confusion, Dolph simply chuckled a bit and started to scrub some shampoo into his hair and scalp. “Well, my lack of cleanliness was pointed out, was it not? Bathing in rivers and streams doesn’t exactly do much to clean one’s body.”

     Shigure shrugged his shoulders and placed his pants and underwear on the bench near the large tub, soon stepping into it and seating himself on the opposite end from Dolph. “Jesus, this feels good. It’s been days.. I mean, it’s nothing compared to your situation, but the last time I even bathed myself was when we were preparing for the Games.” He noticed Dolph looking at him intently, as if he’d never seen him before, and Shigure cocked his eyebrow up in confusion. “What? Is there something on my face?”

     Dolph shook his head and looked down into the water, eyes looking back up into Shigure’s own. “I was just thinking… Why don’t you get your hair cut? Don’t you want to leave that behind? You don’t… have to hide behind it anymore, like the master told you to. It might even feel refreshing to cut it off and start anew.”

     Shigure seemed to give it some thought, looking at his reflection in the water. “I’ll do it. I just haven’t because I wasn’t sure how I wanted it to be done.”

     Smiling at him, Dolph reached his hand forward and moved the bangs of Shigure’s hair around a bit. “I would cut it short on the sides, and leave some on the side, but not a lot – like Georg’s, just slightly longer. What do you think?” When he received a nod, he nodded back and shifted himself back into his original spot. “Sounds good then. We’ll go see who can in the palace when we get done in here.”

     Shigure sighed and leaned his head back, closing his eyes and stretching his arms out above his head. “Euram can help with that. He managed his own hair or something like that, so he should be able to help.”

     After a few moments of silence, Shigure sat himself back upright and looked at Dolph. “You can ask about her, y’know. I can handle it.”

     Dolph nodded his head, slowly looking into his eyes with a hint of sadness. “She was the same as in Nether Gate, right?”

     When he received a nod, Shigure also began to speak. “She kept her uniform too. It’s in her closet. We… haven’t decided what to do with her room yet. We can go see it if you want.”

     With a very quiet agreement between the two, they decided to finish up their bath and make their way to what was Eris’ room. Shigure stood at the door and looked back at Dolph, giving him any chance to say he didn’t want to continue. With but a nod, Shigure turned the knob on the door and proceeded inside, standing in the doorway – while he was stable talking about her, he wasn’t even sure he was ready to look at all of her belongings again.

     Dolph stepped inside and looked across the room, starting at the rightmost side and scanning left. He didn’t stop in his tracks until he saw the bed, his body seizing up and eyes widening as memories of the aftermath of the siege on the palace started to fill his mind. Shigure stepped forward a bit, cocking an eyebrow up in confusion. “Dolph?”

     He sighed deeply and gripped the table, trying to tie his mind to something other than that bed, but all he could think about was what happened due to the failed attempts to drag her from her bed and take her back with them. To take Frey and the others hostage, and how Gizel exacted his anger on him once again when told the mission was a failure.

     Shigure placed a hand on Dolph’s shoulder, looking at him in shock – he’d never seen him in this state of mind, shaking and having something obviously invade his mind enough to send him spiraling. “Dolph, what the hell is going on? Say something to me.”

     Dolph’s breathing started to pick up to a panicked state, and he backed away from the table. Shaking his head, he finally started to sob and started running out of the room and down the hall. Shigure immediately took off after him, cursing himself as he’d somehow lost track of where he’d gone along the way.

     Georg walked up to him, sighing deeply and looking slightly confused. “You should come to the Queen’s Chambers. Dolph ran inside, muttering something about you and Gizel.”

     Shigure cursed to himself and made his way through the chambers until he entered that of the Queen, soon seeing Euram in the corner with Dolph. Shigure made his way over to them, putting his hand on Dolph’s knee and looking at his face. “Hey, it’s me. What’s going on? Talk to me. Euram can go if you don’t want to talk in front of him.”

     Dolph shook his head, looking up into Shigure’s eyes and sighing deeply. “When I saw her bed, I flashed back to what Gizel… did to me after I’d returned without her and with news that our mission failed.”

     Shigure shook his head and sat next to him, putting a hand on his arm. “I understand. I could hardly look at her stuff too, before I found out about everything and after she’d been buried. I was hardly able to contain myself either, so you weren’t the only one to react that way.”

     Looking into Shigure’s eyes finally, Dolph nodded and looked down at his hands. “It’s been so long since I was shown a way to happiness that wasn’t paved with abuse for mistakes and being starved of everything I held dear. I long to be touched, to be loved and held, without knowing it comes at a cost.”

     Euram shook his head and sat in front of Shigure and Dolph, eyes looking at the former rather sternly. “Don’t ever think for a moment we’ll deprive you of the things you love most for your mistakes. We might teach you a lesson or two, but it’ll never come at the cost of losing those things. Not here – not under our watch. We didn’t decide to let you remain here just to punish you and torture you. You were under their strings – what more could you have done? Have yourself killed because you chose the wrong moment to turn against them? Betray your orders to serve them and be faced with execution? You won’t be punished for anything here, and I can promise you that.”

     Dolph soon nodded his head and smiled, where Shigure sat up and looked at Euram. “Now that that’s out of the way, Euram – you’ve managed your own hair over the years, yeah?” When Euram nodded to him, he looked to Dolph and then back to Euram. “Dolph wanted to get his hair tidied up, and...” He sighed deeply, closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the wall. “I wanted you to cut my hair off – like Georg’s, just a little longer.”

     Euram looked at him in surprise but nodded his head, going over to the desk and pulling some hair-cutting scissors out of the drawer. “Which of you would like to go first? Dolph, yours will be short to do so we could get it out of the way now if you’d like.”

     Dolph made his way to the chair in the corner, Euram draping a cloth over his body and pinning it behind his neck, to keep the stray hairs from falling on his skin. It only took a few moments, the uneven and dead ends of his hair now gone and the entirety looking much neater.

     Shigure sat down next, Dolph looking into his eyes from beyond the bangs that covered them. “Don’t fret over it, Shigure. He isn’t around to order you to hide behind the hair, so you can let it go now – and you have to sometime or another, so why not now?” He knelt down in front of him and sat down, placing a hand on Shigure’s wrist. “I won’t go anywhere. I know it’s going to be emotional, after all that happened because of it. It’s okay.”

     Euram placed another cloth around Shigure and pinned it behind his neck, the same as he did for Dolph. He took the scissors and began snipping away at Shigure’s hair, up to the middle of his back for the time being. Shigure closed his eyes as he felt tears welling up in them, and soon he looked to Dolph for reassurance. “Hey, it’s alright – I’m right here.”

     Euram kept snipping away at the hair until finally a small fluff of it was kept at the front, like Georg’s but a bit more left there, and kept short on the sides but not shaven. Euram handed him a mirror, and Shigure’s eyes widened at the sight. “I can see my eyes. Thank you, Euram – it’s perfect.”

     They were eventually dismissed as Euram set about cleaning up the mess, and they made their way to the foyer. When they got there, a messenger from the palace approached them to inform them that Georg wanted to see them both upstairs in the guard room. They took off and made their way there, and once inside, Georg, Lyon and Frey all had floored looks on their faces.

     Shigure chuckled at them and looked into Georg’s eyes, soon back to Dolph. “Dolph mentioned wanting his hair tidied up, and he suggested I finally do something about my hair. When we were in Nether Gate, the master always told me to keep my hair grown out so that I could hide behind it. Now that he’s gone, we felt it was finally time to let it all go.”

     Georg approached him and smiled, kissing his lips deeply and running his fingers through the front when he pulled back. “I think it looks good on you. Suits you well, Shigure.”

     Shigure smiled at him and was soon taken back by Georg bringing him some news he didn’t expect. “Euram’s antagonist is said to be making their way here. We have maybe a couple of days, tops.”

     Dolph sighed and shook his head, knowing of only one person who could have wanted to make use of Euram’s death. “Why couldn’t she just leave it be?” When attention was drawn to him, tilted heads and all, he closed his eyes and moved across the room to sit in a chair. “After the castle was abandoned and you all had reconvened here, Marscal Godwin had ordered me to do one final thing – to go dig up Sialeeds’ body and take it to him. He had someone whom I don’t recall the name of there, who took the liberty of reviving her.”

     Georg’s mouth gaped open, Frey gasping audibly. “She’s alive?!”

     Dolph sighed and felt his shoulders hunch over, body obviously overtaken with the unease from the situation. “She disliked the fact that Euram and Salum had done all of you wrong, used all of you – as you all found out, she killed Salum and left Euram alive. Well, she notified me of this, but also made note of the fact that she’d be back for Euram whenever she felt she wanted to end his life.”

     Frey looked uneasy about what they were all just told, his face showing immense amounts of worry and sadness. Georg made his way to his former prince, putting a hand on his shoulder for comfort and support. “Hey, it’ll be alright Frey. Maybe she’ll just hear us out and talk it out with us – you never know.” Frey sighed and shrugged his shoulders, unsure how likely that was but willing to believe in the possibility, even if only just for the moment to ease Georg’s worry of his well-being.

* * *

     The next few days were spent in immense amounts of worry and tension, nobody knowing when a messenger would storm into the Queen’s Chambers, worriedly announcing that Sialeeds was there to confront them about Euram’s whereabouts. They’d taken the liberty of having Euram stay completely confined in his own room, having messengers and workers of the palace to bring him whatever he needed – they decided it best for his safety.

     Finally, on the third day of anxious waiting, a messenger came into the Queen’s Chambers to come face-to-face with Georg, Frey, Lyon, Shigure and Arsleia. He sighed and bowed to them, arm folded to a ninety-degree angle and fist to his heart. He returned his arm to his side after being greeted by Arsleia, who finally heard the news she’d been waiting to hear for so long. “Lady Sialeeds has arrived. She said she wished to speak with all of you in private.”

     Arsleia looked to Georg, then Frey, and finally back to the messenger. “Alright. Thank you for notifying us. Have her meet us in the foyer of the Palace. We’ll take it from there.”

     The five of them finally filed out behind the messenger, where they waited in the foyer until the sight finally graced each of them. Frey was the first to step forward, Lyon beginning to stop him but Georg placing a hand on her arm and shaking his head. “A-… Aunt Sialeeds? Is it… really you?”

     Sialeeds looked at him in nothing but pure guilt and remorse, nodding her head and reaching her hands up. She finally, after all of these years, took her hair out of its holder to let it fall to about the middle of her back, a beautiful shade of silver that complimented to fair complexion of her skin. “Frey, it’s me.”

     Frey took slow steps toward her, dropping the book that had been in his hands for what could have been far too long, having been reading from it in the Chambers while they were waiting around that morning. Some of the pages landed bent on the floor, though nobody knelt down to unfold them or pick up the book, all eyes watching the aunt and nephew in front of them.

     Tears began to fill his eyes as he stared her up and down, hands finally holding her by the arms and eyes looking into her own. “Sialeeds, I-” His body seemed to nearly heave at the chest and stomach, sadness overthrowing him at long last. All the months of turmoil, stress, anxiety and sadness were finally unraveling within him, and when she took her familiar arms and wrapped them around his body, he fell apart in the comfort of someone he’d wanted to know of it all the most.

     Frey cried and sobbed into her chest as she held him tightly, closing her eyes and feeling all of the guilt creep into her soul. She sighed deeply and made no slight of movement or grip, letting a hand reach up to rub the head of silver hair that matched her own. “Frey, I’m so sorry. Back then, you wouldn’t have truly understood what I was doing or why. I would have rather killed you all myself than to let those awful men have you instead. I tried to do everything I could to stop you all from facing them, to keep you all away from how harmful it was.”

     She sighed deeply again and fought to keep her own composure for the sake of her nephew, opening her eyes when she felt him move to look at her. “Sialeeds, do you know about… Lym?”

     Sialeeds closed her eyes, feeling tears creeping into them as a nod moved her head up then down. “I do. I heard about it – I’m so sorry, Frey. At her Sacred Games, so long ago… I knew what Gizel was planning and I tried to talk him out of it – I tried to change his mind, but he was so adamant. When that failed, I knew it was over before it even began. What I would have given to kill Godwin with my bare hands for all of this...”

     Frey slowly looked into her eyes after she opened them, both of them finding comfort and peace within each other. “Sialeeds, we know you’re here for Euram. Please, just leave him be. He tried to stop them too – we all did. We were all in this together, and you know that. You don’t know what he was dealing with back then – it was complicated. You have to hear him out first.”

     With a small sigh and a large pause of hesitance, she nodded her head and turned to look upstairs – even after all of these years, the Sun Palace had remained the same as it had back in Frey’s youth. It made her envious of all the years they’d had to waste trying to save the world, along with the people that resided in it. “Where is he? I’ll speak with him then.”

     They all led her upstairs to Euram’s room, where Georg knocked on the door and sighed. “Euram – Sialeeds is here, but she’s agreed to hear you out on what happened back then.” When they were let inside, Sialeeds kept her eyes off of the boy who eventually wedded her niece, feeling anger for him but also guilt for wanting to do such unspeakable things to him.

     All of them took a seat wherever they could, one by one, until finally Euram was standing in the middle of his room and facing Sialeeds. “Sialeeds, I need you to understand that I was never against the work of any of you – it was all Salum’s doing. If I’d have had a say in anything that happened, I would have never allowed any of his wrongdoings to ever take place. The Dawn Rune, the confrontation in the woods – it was all my father’s doing. I tried to talk him out of it, to stop him, but he refused to even remotely listen to reason. I had no choice but to do as he said, because I started to fear for my own safety at some point during all of this.”

     He took a couple of breaths to collect himself, having felt his emotions start to wiggle and writhe within him. When he finally had a good composure about himself again, he looked back into Sialeeds’ eyes. “Sialeeds, I wish I could take back everything my father did, because he was no better than Gizel or Godwin. I wanted so badly to rescue Lymsleia, to save her – I truly did. Salum wanted me to marry her so she could have the footholds that he’d always wanted for himself, but I saw her for all of her beauty and everything she ever was. I wanted to marry her for her – not a bit of the power, the money. None of that mattered to me – I just wanted her safe and sound, and most of all, happy. They took that not only from her, but from you, Frey, Shigure, Dolph, and I as well.”

     He sighed deeply and took his stride to the desk, picking up a beautifully framed photo of he, Lymsleia and Arsleia, taking it to Sialeeds and handing it to her. Shaking hands held the photo once she had possession of it, eyes looking down at it and tears falling onto the glass. “She made me so happy, Sialeeds. What she gave to me was all I ever wanted for her from the start. If I had known what Gizel and Godwin had planned back then, at her Games, I would have done anything I could have to stop it – and I am beyond sorry that I didn’t know. I will forever be beyond sorry that I wasn’t even able to stop my own father, not until my mouth blurted out his possession of the Dawn Rune. So Sialeeds, I never had any say or hand in what my father did. I never wanted that, and I’m sorry that what he did undermined everything that you all fought so hard to fix, that helped along Godwin’s plans. I’m sorry.”

     Sialeeds looked at him with a deeply rooted sense of guilt, blinking back the overflow of tears that threatened to streak her face. “Euram – I didn’t know. I’m sorry.” She sobbed lightly and looked back at the photo, smiling softly at how happy Lymsleia was. “You made her very happy – look at this photo of you all.” She looked back up into Euram’s eyes, soon wiping her eyes dry. “So, you said he took that from Dolph as well? I need you to explain that to me.”

     Shigure sighed and looked at her, then taking his gaze to the door. “That’s something better said by the man himself. He’s here.”

     Sialeeds looked almost rather shocked by that fact, but she nodded her head and then looked to the door. “Go get him. This ought to be good.” She said that almost with a smirk on her face, intrigued by the fact that Dolph was residing in the palace.

     Shigure left to get Dolph, and a few moments later returned with him. Dolph got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach – not due to fear, but the return of memories that Sialeeds would remind him of because of who ordered him to dig her up to have her revived. He looked to Shigure as he felt his stronger hand on his shoulder, seeing a concerned look on his face. “Hey, are you alright? You don’t look so good.”

     Dolph sighed deeply and nodded his head with a large amount of uncertainty, shaking his head while trying to shake off the feelings in his stomach. “Yes – I think I’ll be fine. She has nothing to actively do with them, but she just… reminds me of them.”

     Shigure sighed as a look of sorrowful sympathy washed over his features, leading Dolph to a chair at the desk. “I know – it’ll be alright. Let me know if you start to feel unwell.”

     With a nod, Dolph sat down and face Sialeeds, taking a breath to try and calm himself down. When he felt he was well enough to speak of the subject, he looked into her eyes and placed his hands in his lap. “I, like Euram, wasn’t in a position to neglect my orders or turn them down. Gizel and Marscal Godwin ensured that I wouldn’t go against them. They ordered me to do something – I would, simply because I feared for my safety otherwise.”

     Dolph closed his eyes and stood up, beginning to lower his pants for proof of what he was to discuss next, turning his eyes to the door to ensure it was locked first. Shigure went and did as such as he knew what was to come from Dolph’s lips, and then nodded to him when it was assured that nobody could enter.

     He swallowed back a painful lump of sadness that rested in his throat, eyes turning back to Sialeeds. “The night of the attack on this very palace, I was instructed to… abduct Erismar and bring her back to Gizel. I say it this way because she was never an ally to any of you from the beginning, which you can find out later if you’re interested in said information. Things went awry with my plans, and I returned to Gizel empty-handed. What I faced when I returned was nothing short of what one would call abusive.”

     Dolph’s gaze turned to the deeply ingrained scars that covered his thighs and hips, shaky hands holding the waistband of his pants as a mixture of anger, sadness and trauma filled his body. “When I would fail to complete a task I was given, he would show his anger in whatever ways he saw fit. Though when he passed away and I was left to follow the orders of Marscal Godwin, I was even more fearful of the consequences of if I would have failed a mission assigned to me. He surely would have killed me – I’ve no doubt about that. When Frey and Lyon defeated me in the ruins of Ashtwal, I had to take control of my rune to warp somewhere – anywhere but there, where if Godwin had succeeded, he’d have found me and chastised me with a fate none other than death.”

     He felt tears in his eyes, his lower lip trembling as he clawed at the fabric on his legs. Georg slowly stood up from his seat, keeping cautious eyes on him. Shigure did the same, cocking an eyebrow and trying to make eye contact with him. “Dolph? Are you alright? You look sick – are you-”

     He was cut off by a deep sobbing gasp from the man before him, his hands shaking and face pale from all of the emotions that stirred the pit of his stomach into a fighting frenzy. With but a small whimper from his trembling lips, Shigure grabbed the small trash can from the corner nearest to him, shoving it in front of Dolph. Almost immediately, he began to heave as he threw up into the can, dropping to his knees as he felt weak. Georg grabbed him by the arms and tried to lessen the impact on his knees, sighing as he looked back to Sialeeds. “Things have been far more… complicated than what you thought. It’s a mess.”

     Sialeeds frowned deeply as she watched the man she thought she’d known from Nether Gate unfold right before her eyes, then starting to realize just how complicated everything she’d ever known really was. Waiting until he was finally calm and collected again, she looked to Dolph to gently confront him. “Dolph, you knew I wasn’t an ally to the two of them. You could have talked to me – this all could have been different for you.”

     He looked away from her, pursing his lips for a few short seconds before returning his gaze to her own. “I was fearful that it would be seen as a ploy to trick you, or _any_ of you, so I simply kept it to myself. Back then, it was more likely than not that it would have simply come off as a trick, because I wasn’t in a position to be believed after what you all had seen from me. It wouldn’t have been worth it at the time to try explaining any of it.”

     Having dressed himself again and sitting back down in the chair, he waved Shigure and Georg away from him as he no longer felt so unwell. “That being said, Erismar was the biggest mystery and shock to us all. I’ve no idea whether or not you knew of anything either before, during or after your death, so if you’d like us to explain, we can.”

     When she nodded her head, Shigure turned to face her and looked to Georg with a nod before turning to look back at her. “We should go to your former room then. Dolph, do you want to come with us? I know it’s… hard for you.”

     Dolph nodded his head, giving him a sure look. “Yes. I think I can handle it.”

     Arsleia, along with Euram, Frey and Lyon, departed from the group to head back to the Queen’s Chambers, as she still had work that needed to be done for the Senate. Shigure, Georg, Dolph and Sialeeds made their way back to her former room, which was now stock-piled with all current information on Nether Gate and its former members, including Dolph.

     Shigure filed through the tabs in the bookcase until he reached a certain name under the letter “E” - Erismar. He sighed and closed his eyes, pulling out some of the books and flipping through the various pages while starting to explain the situation to Sialeeds. “As mentioned before, she was never our ally. We didn’t find this out until it was too late, but the fact remains that she never intended to help us or to do us any good. Her heart remained with Nether Gate until her rather bitter end, which was brought upon her by none other than myself.”

     Sialeeds gave him a look of shock at the last sentence, and at that he continued on. “She played us the entire time. When she took off for Stormfist while we were residing with the Barows family, it was part of her plan in giving them information about our whereabouts, and what we planned to do for the future. When we found her in the Palace prison, she was beaten and bruised but she let them do it to make us think they had done this to her against her will. When Dolph supposedly antagonized her the night of the attack, it was all a trick brought on by her to make us think they were still trying to control her.”

     He looked to her journals, eyes full of sorrow and anger tied up into one package. “Sagiri was the most important person to me before I met Eris – I would do anything for her. I had yet to find out until this year that she was already dead before we had separated ourselves from Nether Gate, and it wasn’t until this year that I found out I had fallen in love with the very person who ended her life – that I had married and conceived two children with the very person who took my entire world away from me. I told myself for so many years that if I ever found the person who abused her and emotionally tortured her, I would do whatever I had to do to exact my revenge.”

     He paused for a few short seconds to place the books and journals back in their proper places on the bookshelf, turning back to face Sialeeds once more. “When I found out that it was none other than Eris herself who had done it, I knew what had happened. The one thing I knew about her that nobody else realized was that no matter what she did or said, she was still true to her own heart deep down inside of herself. So despite knowing they manipulated her to the point of full cooperation in whatever they asked her to do, she was still herself and knew exactly what she was doing when she killed my sister.”

     Shigure took a small breath, standing in front of the door with but a near emotionless strength and composure about him. “At this point, she was already dead due to the final step in her plan to destroy us. So I went to my daughter’s room, found Zera, who is Zerase’s son, and took him to her burial spot in the courtyard garden. I dug up her body, had him use his rune to revive her, and I killed her myself with my sword. I shoved her back into the hole, spat on her, then proceeded to bury her alive to suffocate her with everything she had done to us. I can’t say I regret a single thing I did to her, because when I vowed to myself that I would do anything I had to for my sister, dead or alive, I meant it with every fiber of my being.”

     Sialeeds remained eerily quiet throughout the entire explanation, a nearly silent curse coming from beyond her lips. “Damn. What the hell?” Shaking her head, she looked back to Shigure and sighed softly. “I’m so sorry, Shigure. I want to know, however – how are you doing now?”

     He smiled at her rather genuinely, soon looking to Georg and then back to her. “Much better, now that I have Georg. There’s a lot to catch you up on, but hopefully you’ll stay with us for that.”

     She smiled and stood up, making her way to Georg and leaning against him like she would in times long behind them. “Of course I will – I don’t think I’d have it any other way.”

* * *

     In the several months that followed Sialeeds return, things returned back to what could be called normalcy for them. Frey and Sialeeds had returned their bond back to what it used to be, and she and Georg had become old friends once again while he constantly jabbed at her about her age.

     She had met and grown close to Seris, Geris, Zera and Arsleia as well, which Euram and Shigure were pleased about.

     Alexander had finally come to the Palace, a wedding ceremony finally taking place for he and Arsleia, where he would be crowned as the commander of the Queen’s Knights. Zera and Geris had finally solidified their relationship and became each other’s significant other, while Shigure and Georg did the same, becoming wedded to each other under the new law that would allow such a thing to finally take place.

     Seris trained long and hard hours each day until she finally became a member of the Queen’s Knights alongside her brother, where they would then fight to protect Arsleia and the country they resided in.

     Frey and Lyon remained as close as ever, and Dolph finally became friends with everyone in the palace. Arsen and Raizen maintained a very close bond with him and Shigure, and finally life was calm for everyone after so much pain and suffering had gone on.

     It was all finally over, and it would go on to remain that way for the rest of time.

* * *

Fin


	4. Epilogue - Georg [I]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What comes after may not always be love or happiness, but rather pain and sorrow. The pain and suffering from the past that has come to haunt those who remain.

**[ I ]**

 

     It had been so many months since life for everyone resumed at the palace - ever since Dolph had made amends with everyone and Sialeeds had returned to start anew with them. Something felt as if it was missing for Shigure, Georg and Frey, though neither of the three could seem to come to place what it was for far too long. One by one, they all seemed to finally understand just what it was. For Frey, it was Lymsleia. Shigure, as it turns out, was an odd combination of both Eris and Sagiri. Georg, whom had spent many years protecting the woman, came to realize that what was missing from his life was Arshtat. 

 

     Shigure and Frey would meet with Raizen every so often to "see" their respective missing pieces, though for Georg it was never so simple. He had begun to grow distant from his friends and husband, showing remorse bundled together with guilt and sorrow - for the past and all it held for him were only sore reminders of what would never return, haunting him through every waking moment he wasn't caught in a slumber. Though Sialeeds would often try to coax any piece of information out of him, nothing ever seemed to cause the words to spill forth from his lips. Every conversation had about said issues were left to rot with pain and agony riddling his face, and it did no more but cause pain to those watching the sad scene to take place. 

 

     Finally the night came where someone was able to coax it all out of him, and it turned out to be Raizen himself, coupled with his rune. He held it in his hands, standing beside Georg at the piers of Sol Falena. "Would you rather speak with myself, or with her?" For a few seconds, Georg appeared confused but then looked at the rune, then back up to meet his eyes. "Then I think you should come with me, to the room that holds the Runes. We can truly feel her presence near the Sun Rune itself, and hear her through its presence." 

 

     Georg hesitantly turned on his heels and followed Raizen back to the palace, unsure of whether or not he was ready to face the ghosts that only served to haunt him, though he finally decided it was time to face them. Once inside of the sealed room, Raizen let go of his rune and let it float in the air, closing his eyes and taking a breath as it sank into the skin of his forehead. An almost heavenly light surrounded his body, and when it disappeared Georg was face-to-face with the woman he'd sworn his life to protect - the former Queen of the country and who once was the bearer of the Sun Rune itself. 

 

     He felt his lips part slightly as he stared into the beautiful blue eyes before him, his heart seemingly sinking into the pits of his stomach as he fought to find the right words to say. "Arshtat - I'm so sorry." He waited and waited for some sort of response, and finally with a wave of shock rolling through his body, he heard her voice from Raizen's own before him. 

 

     "Georg, there is no need to apologize to me. You saved my children and thus the entire country, and I could never be more grateful to you."

 

     Georg's lips parted a bit more, mouth agape with shock and his eyes threatening to fill with tears. "Arshtat... It's really your voice."

 

     The body in front of him reached forward to take his hands with a gentle touch, head leaning forward to allow soft lips to kiss his forehead. "Georg, you did this country a great honor, and a great service. You were an amazing bodyguard to Ferid and I, and a wonderful caretaker to my sister and children. You helped paved the way for them to have a beautiful life ahead of them, and did your best to protect my daughter in her time of need. She's been looking down on you, ever so grateful for what you've done for Frey since her death, as am I. You should never be apologetic for having done so much good in this world, and I couldn't have asked you for anything more."

 

     The raven-haired man's eyes began to fill with tears, and in response he closed them and listened closely to her words - he hung on the edge of every single one. When she concluded her statement, he finally looked back into her eyes with a smile adorning his lips, a nod moving his head. "Thank you, Arshtat."

 

     After a long moment of staring into each other's eyes, the body before him moved to embrace Georg's own. The silver hair felt soft on his cheek, and he closed his eyes and felt a sob rip forth from his chest. "It's been so long without an escape, Arshtat."

 

     The feminine voice shushed him gently, a hand reaching back to hold the back of his head and stroke his hair. "I know. Until you've had your entire escape, we shan't leave this room. It's what you deserve for all of your hard work." 

 

     Together they sat like this, and the moments passed by for longer than they expected. When they finally pulled back to look each other in the eyes, she smiled at him. "You should give Raizen some rest, Georg. He's very good at what he does, though this can't have been easy for a single body to harbor. We shall meet again soon - I promise."

 

     Finally, the Sun Rune's glow began to fade back into the statue, and Raizen's rune fell from his forehead and onto the floor beneath them. Georg caught it at the last second and gently placed it on the floor, seeing Raizen's body waver with weakness. He reached forward and held him steady by the shoulders, looking into his eyes. "Are you alright, Raizen? Should I carry you to your room?"

 

     He shook his head and moved to stand to his feet, taking the rune with him and taking a breath. "I'm alright. Do you feel better?"

 

     Georg smiled at him, nodding his head and turning his gaze back to the statue that held the Sun Rune within it. "I do. My worries have been put to rest, and I think now I can finally start to heal, even just a little bit. Thank you, Raizen, for allowing that to happen."

 

     Together, the two exited the sealed room and parted ways at the stairs that led to the foyer. Raizen went to his room and Georg went downstairs, a messenger alerting him that Shigure and Frey had both been looking for him. They had gone to the guard room with Euram, the man said, and Georg thanked him before heading that way himself. 

 

     Shigure was the first to approach him when he entered the room, face stained with worry as he looked his face up and down. "Georg, what's wrong? Your eyes are so red." 

 

     Georg shook his head and smiled at him, taking his hands for a few brief seconds before letting go to face the others. "We can talk about it later. What were you guys looking for me for?" 

 

     Frey looked up to face his superior in strengths unimaginable, eyes carrying the weight of so many things that one could hardly imagine speaking of. "I was wondering if I could speak with you in the back room, with Shigure and Euram." 

 

     When Georg nodded his head, the four took their strides to the back room, taking seats on the couches after Frey shut and locked the door behind them. When he was seated beside Shigure, Euram beside Georg, he looked up into his eyes and allowed his hand to procure a letter from his pocket. "I found this in mother's study. We haven't touched it over the years, and I grew curious today. I began looking through all of our collections of photos, and this was sequestered away in the bindings of the album. I hadn't dared to read it, but it was addressed to you."

 

     A young hand reached forward to place the paper into Georg's stronger one, whose eyes looked the folded paper up and down with both curiosity and pain tied together into one package. "This was from her?"

 

     Frey nodded his head, his eyes glancing to where he saw Georg's name written in beautiful cursive. "Yes. This is no doubt her handwriting. I know you hadn't gotten to see much of it yourself before she was gone, but this is most-assuredly from mother."

 

     Georg swallowed the large amount of saliva that had collected in his mouth, lips parting slightly as he let his ten digits set forth with the task of unfolding the paper, which was fragile with several-plus years of discoloration staining the corners and sides, but had yet to take hold of what held the words. He let go of the breath he'd been holding in his chest, inhaling once more as he began to read the letter out loud, for not only himself but the other three to hear. 

 

      _"Dearest Georg._

 

_I hadn't hoped to have to write this letter so soon, and yet the time continues to draw nearer and nearer our current standpoint. I write this to you in hopes that you will take upon a task for me that Ferid has tried suggesting to me himself, and I finally have come to realize its significance._

 

_Lymsleia's Sacred Games have come and gone now, and with the arrival of the Godwins and the Engagement Party drawing near, I know that doom may very well be on the horizon for us all. With this possibility in mind, I ask of you but two things. The first is to protect my children, no matter what the cost. The cost? Well, that may very well be my own life. The Sun Rune has been taking control of me more and more often as of late, and with all that is bound to happen in our near future, I have no doubts that it will be thrust into effect once more in a much greater way - such as that of which destroyed Lordlake. The second thing I must ask of you is to do whatever you must to put an end to my reign of terror, should such a thing come to fruition. Ferid and I would entrust such a task to nobody else, and I very much hope you will understand._

 

_You've come to us highly recommended, and have proven your strength and loyalty since your arrival. Frey and Lym have come to trust you very much, as have the other knights and members of our family. With that, you have gained the trust of Ferid and myself, and we would have asked nobody else to take care of them. You've done so much for us already, yet I'm afraid your job has only just begun, Georg._

 

_Whatever comes about from these things on the horizon, do not give up hope. Persevere, and hold your head up high for those around you will need you just as you will need them._

 

_I thank you for your bravery and your ability to take such great care of everyone, and for all that you will come to do for this country, as well as my family._

 

_Sincerely, Arshtat."_

 

     Georg reached up a hand to wipe a few tears away from his right eye, Euram placing a hand on his shoulder and rubbing it gently for comfort and support. "She cared so much for you, Georg, it seems. Hold on to that, and never let it go."

 

     He smiled at Euram, nodding his head and placing the letter onto the table in front of them. "I wonder why this was never given to me before everything happened back then... Why do you think it was stuck away in an album of photos instead of in my own room?"

 

     Frey seemed to ponder the thought for a few seconds, shrugging his shoulders and looking back up into Georg's eyes. "Maybe we'll never know. We know what matters for now, and I personally think that's more than enough. What do you think Georg?"

 

     Georg nodded his head, picking up the letter once more and folding it back up into the rectangular shape it had been in when first presented to him. He stood up and stretched, looking to Shigure before yawning slightly. "It's getting late. Are you ready for bed, Shigure?"

 

     When given confirmation, the two took off for their own room upstairs and proceeded to undress to their undergarments to sleep. Georg took the letter from the pocket of his uniform, placing it on the desk and smiling at the letters that spelled out his name -  _Georg._

 

     He finally turned around and moved to the bed, lying down beside Shigure, who was already underneath the blankets and awaiting the embrace of Georg's warm body. 

 

     Without a single word, Georg wrapped his arms around the younger's body, closing his eyes and eventually falling into a deep slumber - this time, a peaceful one. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've been reading back on this story, and decided that I wanted an epilogue here. Call me crazy, after the whirlwind that has been this story, but I thought it would be nice. So here I am, writing up something that may bring more life to this story than what already was. 
> 
> After this epilogue may come "chapters" that are filled to the brim with ideas I had that never came to fruition, or songs I used as inspiration along the way.


	5. Epilogue - Shigure [II]

**[ II ]**

 

     Shigure had awoken from their slumber in the middle of the night, a shiver overthrowing his body and cold sweat dripping down his forehead and making it glisten. 

 

     His pattern of sleep had been like this ever since the arrival of Sialeeds into the palace, where his mind was finally able to let go of its focus on the other things requiring his attention. He would awaken this way, only to turn away when Georg would ask what the source of his pain was - he hadn't wished to discuss it before, and most certainly didn't wish to now. 

 

     Georg hadn't yet risen from his slumber to find Shigure in such pain, and in fact was still very much in a deep sleep. 

 

     Shigure took this opportunity to slip on a few articles of clothing, silently making his way out of the room and down the halls of the palace. Eventually, he found himself outside of Sol Falena itself, carrying the weight of everything he held in his heart as his own emotional baggage. He trudged along the pathways until he found himself in a place he hadn't yet expected himself to face again - the Nether Gate headquarters. It had long since been abandoned after they had eradicated their group's existence, so he knew that if he were to set foot inside, he would be safe. 

 

     He slowly entered the abandoned stone building, eyes gazing around in wonder and pain. He sighed deeply as he began to approach very familiar rooms from the corners of his memory - the rooms that had been taken by Sagiri and himself. The first two initials were on metal plates by the doors - one said "SA" and the other "SH". He slowly wandered into his former room, the stains still on the stone floor from having to sit in his humiliation several times over. The metal hooks which held the chains he found himself bound to on multiple occasions were still in the walls, making his skin crawl and his body shudder. 

 

     Shigure looked to the other side of the room, seeing his former Nether Gate uniform folded neatly on the iron bed. His eyes stared at it in agony, a few tears gathering at the corners of them. He shook his head and turned away from the sight, eyes closing for just a few seconds before opening them once more so he could see the way to the hallway. He took a few steps to find himself at the doorway of his deceased sister, and his hand hesitated at the doorknob for almost an entire moment before he finally turned it and opened the door. The sight of the room was more than he expected it to be, and his eyes were filled to the brim with tears almost immediately. 

 

     His body was filled with horror as he scanned his sight across its length and width, stopping at a blood-stained portion of the stone floor. His mouth hung open as he thought back to reading how his sister died, and he sobbed to himself as he knelt down to stroke his fingers across the dried crimson on the floor. "I'm sorry."

 

     After sitting there for a few moments, he stood back up and looked over at the bed in the corner - her ripped, blood-stained uniform was folded on the bed, and he took a few steps forward and placed his hands on the fabric. "Sagiri..." He took the uniform into his arms, holding it close to his chest and closing his eyes tightly. The memories of her emotionless face passed through every inch of his mind all at once, and another sob ripped itself from his body as he gripped the uniform tighter. 

 

     When the weight of the memories the building carried finally became more than he could take, he took his leave to head back to Sol Falena. Some odd amount of hours later, he found himself at the palace doors once again. Upon his arrival into the foyer, Georg, Dolph and Sialeeds were the first to greet him. 

 

     Georg reached his arms out to grab his husband by the shoulders, eyes full of worry. "Shigure, where have you been? We've been worried about you ever since dawn."

 

     Shigure looked to Dolph, who had seemingly spotted the uniform he carried, and he then looked back to Georg. "Let's go upstairs to our room - all of us."

 

     Together, the four of them departed for Shigure and Georg's room, and he sat at the desk while the other three took seats in the chairs scattered about the room. 

 

     He placed the uniform on the desk, looking down at it before shifting his gaze to Georg. "I woke up in the middle of the night again, as I usually do. You weren't awake, so I got dressed and I took off. I had no idea where I was to go - I just wanted to go out for a while. I finally decided to go to the Nether Gate headquarters, since it had been abandoned for so long - it would be safe."

 

     Shigure was met with a shocked expression from Dolph, eyes full of worry. "When I went inside, I found Sagiri and I's former rooms from when we were still members of their group. My uniform was still there, though that's not the one I brought back with me." He swallowed back the lump in his throat, closing his eyes for a few short seconds before looking back to the uniform itself. "The next room I went to was hers. The floor was still stained with her blood from when Eris killed her. Her uniform was still torn and blood-stained from the same event. I brought back the uniform with me, because it was something I could have of hers. Her blood is on this uniform - it's all I physically have of her."

 

     Dolph sighed deeply and stood up, walking to Shigure and kneeling down in front of him. "I'm sorry for all of this. He made such a mess of everything, and I'm sorry it's gotten this bad."

 

     Sialeeds shook her head, which caused Georg to look at her before turning his gaze to Shigure and Dolph. "Dolph, you know fully well that none of this was your fault. You shouldn't be apologizing for something you didn't do or couldn't control."

 

     Hesitantly, Dolph sighed and nodded his head in agreement to her words. "I know. Shigure, I admire that you'd hold on to something so disdainful to retain the memory of your sister. Not many people in this world would be willing to do such a thing."

 

     Shigure nodded to him, soon looking at a photo on the desk of he, Georg, Seris and Geris. "What a mess this is. She's done so many awful things to us all so indirectly, and yet I can't bring myself to reject the idea of still loving her." Confusion filled the room before he finally said a name. "Eris made such a mess of everything in our lives, and yet I can't stop saying I miss her and that I love her."

 

     Dolph sighed and put his hands on Shigure's knees, getting his attention enough to look him in the eyes. "It takes the heart so little time to attach itself to another, yet so long to release that grip. I, for the longest time, had a sibling's love with Lyon back in Nether Gate in our youths, and yet even during all of the time we spent fighting each other after she was broken free of them, I still find it hard to let go."

 

     Looking back into his eyes, Shigure smiled at Dolph and nodded his head. "It'll take time, but you'll learn to let it go, Shigure. Until then, and even after, none of us are going anywhere - we'll be here throughout."

 

     "Thank you, Dolph."


	6. Epilogue - Frey [III]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note that nightmare or dream sequences are typed in bold italics.

**[ III ]**

 

     There are some individuals who walk their paths hand-in-hand with those who wish to see them to happiness, and there are some who choose to walk their own paths alone. Ever since the passing of his parents and sister, Frey had always chosen to fight his battles all by himself - to avoid attaching himself to anyone that he could be at risk of losing. 

 

     It came at a price - the pain of his own loneliness always seemed to be as hard to deal with as the grief itself. Managing both at once was like a chaotic tornado that never seemed to stop - constantly waging a war in his mind, and as with any barrier, it was bound to break someday. That day had yet to come, though it always seemed to come and go - seem closer one day and farther away the next. Every day brought about a surprise. 

 

     Frey couldn't go a single day without visiting his sister's burial site in the courtyard garden, the visits always bringing tears to his eyes and pain to his heart. He would vow to never go again, only to be back the very next day. Georg was always there to hold him, just to be pushed away for trying to help -  _"I don't need your help!"_ , he always said. It pained Georg to see Frey try to keep himself on the mend while physically on the opposite. 

 

     Sialeeds often tried to comfort him, met with the same responses he would give Georg. Eventually everyone stopped trying to help comfort him, as they thought someday he would go to them. 

 

     Nobody could have suspected what the current day in particular had in store for them. 

 

     It came time for dinner, and nobody had seen Frey or even heard anything from him that day. Shigure finally volunteered to go up to his room with Lyon, both worried about their former prince's wellbeing. Shigure strongly knocked on the door, which led to Lyon's soft and nurturing voice calling out to her best friend. "Frey? It's Shigure and Lyon. Can we please come in?" When they received a hesitant invitation, what they opened the door to see didn't shock them at all - they weren't prepared for it, but they knew it would happen eventually. 

 

     Frey was sitting on his bed, crying and sobbing hysterically while holding to his chest Lymsleia's garments that she'd worn as the queen. Shigure closed the door behind them as Lyon approached his bed, kneeling down in front of him and taking his hands. "I know, Frey." Her own voice became slightly choked up, and she swallowed the lump in her throat before continuing to speak. "We all miss her too, Frey, but... she wouldn't want to see you this way. She would want you to be happy, and to live your life."

 

     Finally came something that nobody dared to think would ever happen. 

 

     Lymsleia's former garments fell from his grasp, and he sobbed and looked into Lyon's eyes with almost pure pain and agony ripping through every ounce of him. There was a look about him that he'd already given up. "Lyon, there is no further happiness for me. I give up - I can't do this anymore." When Lyon gave him a look of shock, she was taken surprise by what came next. "I'm leaving for the North, where Georg went, and I'm not coming back. I can't stay here anymore - it hurts too much, and I could start over there and be so much better off with my own self."

 

     Shigure's mouth dropped open as Lyon stood up, shaking her head. "Frey, you don't have to go."

 

     The former prince shook his head, looking back into her eyes. "I do, though, Lyon. As long as I remain here, the pain will continue to grow until I've truly given up, and I wish to do more than just leave this country. I will write to you, and ensure every letter reaches you, and I will ensure that you will look at a better man upon my return. This isn't permanent Lyon - just long enough for me to heal. I know I can't return until then as I'll just continue to spiral otherwise, so please, trust me."

 

     Lyon hesitantly nodded her head, Shigure approaching him and putting a hand on his shoulder. "We'll see you to the palace doors, alright?"

 

     With an agreement, Frey carried the single bag with him that carried his clothing and weapons, and enough potch to last the next few years out. Once they arrived at the door, Georg and Sialeeds were rushing toward them with worry. 

 

     Sialeeds looked into his eyes, frowning deeply. "Frey, where are you going?"

 

     He sighed and put his bag down, turning to face her with a stern look on his face. "I'm heading North where Georg went. I know if I stay here, the pain of losing them will only continue to grow, and I'll want more than to just leave the country. I need to heal, and I can't do that here. I won't be gone forever - just long enough to heal my pain, and when I come back, I'll be a better man."

 

     Both Sialeeds and Georg took their time hugging him tightly, and the four of them saw Frey outside, where they watched him carry himself into the setting sun to embark on his adventure. 

 

* * *

 

 

**[ Four Months Later]**

 

_"Dear Lyon._

 

_The North is beautiful. I'll have to bring you here someday._

 

_I don't know how long it's taken for this letter to reach you, but I've been gone for a month now. I miss all of you so much, but I know it'll be better to stay here for a while. I hope you and the others have been training hard like me - I want a challenge when I come back home. Be sure to tell Miakis that. I know she'll want to spar with me the second I'm home._

 

_There wasn't much to update you on yet, though I wanted to let you know that I was still okay._

 

_This will be over before we all know it._

 

_Love, Frey."_

 

     Lyon was excited upon reading the letter, sharing it with her fellow knights. She shared it with Sialeeds and Shigure as well, even Arsleia and Euram. She was already far too eager for her former prince to return. 

 

     The months turned into another year that had flown by until yet another fell into her hands, and she was more than eager to read every word. 

 

_"Dearest Lyon._

 

_I know it's been far too long since my last letter to you, but I didn't want to give you such an empty letter again._

 

_Roy, Faylon and Faylen were traveling here as part of their acting troupe, and they wished for me to extend a "hello" from them. Zegai and Shoon have also started a life together here. They've grown so closely over the years, and finally wished to expand their horizons farther than Falena itself. I was so happy to see each and every one of them._

 

_I've gotten to see so many wonderful things, and the pain has completely subsided for me. When I think of Lymsleia, Arshtat or Ferid, I no longer feel pain. I feel joy that I had so many wonderful memories and times with them._

 

_By the time this letter reaches you, I should very well be on my way home._

 

_I'll be seeing you all again soon._

 

_Love, Frey."_

 

* * *

 

 

_**As Frey was entering the Sun Palace upon his return home, things didn't feel right. It was far too quiet - he knew Lyon would have been waiting at the door for his return each and every day, yet she was nowhere to be seen. Nobody was in sight, and there were vases shattered on the floor.** _

 

_**He began to inspect some of the shattered china on the floor by the stairs, hearing screams sound out from beyond them. He opened the door to his right, seeing Arsen displaying magical abilities that nobody had yet to witness in their lifetime.** _

 

_**Georg was standing in front of Shigure, holding his weak and limp body up against his side while he took the brunt of the force of Arsen's magic. He screamed out in pain, dropping to his knees while trying to turn and run.** _

 

_**Arsen looked straight into Frey's eyes, where he took off running upstairs to try and lose the older man in his fury. He ran into Geris' room, shutting and locking the door behind him. He looked forward to see Geris' dead body over Seris' own, as if he had died protecting her. Zera was sat beside them on the floor, crying softly as he stroked Geris' still hand.** _

 

_**Frey moved forward and knelt down in front of Zera, slowly wrapping his arms around the boy's body and holding him close. "Zera, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have gone away... Where are the others?"** _

 

_**Zera pulled away with a sniffle, looking into his eyes with worry. "They're in the Queen's Chambers downstairs. We'll have to hurry - Arsen may very well have already gotten to them."** _

 

_**Once he heard the words spill from Zera's lips, Frey stood up with him and headed to the door. He slowly unlocked and opened it, peeking outside to make sure they could at least make an immediate getaway. Once their immediate safety was assured, the two of them took off downstairs.** _

__

_**Upon arriving at the Queen's Chambers, they opened the door to find a pile of dead bodies before them.** _

 

_**The only one Frey paid attention to was his former bodyguard and best friend, who lay with sword just inches from her hands. "Lyon! No!!"** _

 

_**He fell to his knees, crying and sobbing as he held her to his body. He looked forward to see Sialeeds in the same condition, his head shaking as he sobbed hysterically.** _

 

_**Before he could say a word, the door was flung off of his hinges and Arsen was in the doorway. Frey stared up at him in fear, cowering against the wall after he'd backed up against it.** _

 

_**Arsen charged up a ball of lightning, and it shot forward at Frey's chest.** _

 

* * *

 

 

     Frey awoke on the ground in a cold sweat, panting and gasping for breath as he looked around him. He saw he was still in the northern country he'd isolated himself in, and quickly he realized that he'd had a horrible nightmare. 

 

     Quickly, he pulled out the mirror he'd used so many times to warp back to Viki's mirror, and he sighed before gathering all of his belongings together. Within an hour, he'd gotten himself packed and ready to leave, and he activated the mirror. 

 

     Within a moment, he found himself in the foyer of the Sun Palace - to his relief, everything was intact. Nothing broken, and all was as it should have been. 

 

     Before he had a chance to move forward, Georg, Shigure, Sialeeds and Lyon came running for him. Lyon was the first to grab him, holding him tightly with sobs of happiness ripping out of her lungs. "Frey!!"

 

     When she finally pulled away, Frey had them all gather in his room so they could catch up while he unpacked his things. When he set foot inside, he took a large inhale and exhale, happy to finally be in the comfort of his room once again. He scanned the room and found three pieces of clothing on the bed - the former garments of Arshtat, Ferid and Lymsleia. He approached them with a softened face, stroking each piece gently and with a small smile. "These are still right as I left them last year - why?"

 

     Georg sat down at the table in the middle of the room, leaning forward while looking into Frey's eyes. "We didn't feel it was our place to move them. These belong to you now, and they mean so much to you, so we left them where they were."

 

     Frey smiled and moved them to the table by his bed, sitting down on the mattress. "Thank you. That was thoughtful of you, but I wouldn't have minded it one bit."

 

     Sialeeds slowly approached and sat next to Frey on the bed, stroking his beautiful silver hair that he'd started to grow back out during his time away. "I always loved your long hair. It always reminded me of your mother. Tell me you're going to let it grow back out again." When he nodded his head, she smiled and stroked his cheek. "Good."

 

     The four of them sat and talked about all the things that had happened during his time away from the palace, and what he had seen while up in the North. It was a wonderful conclusion to the night, and eventually he went to sleep. For the first time in so many years, he slept peacefully in his own bedding. 

 


	7. Epilogue - [IV]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tying up loose ends can often be refreshing for the mind and body.

     Since the return of Frey to the palace, things had finally seemed to calm down in everyone's lives. He and Lyon had finally opened up to each other about how they felt for the other, and a budding romance was finally revealed to everyone around. 

 

     Frey had his beloved sparring match with Miakis, who asked day in and day out for another like old times. 

 

     Shigure, Georg, Sialeeds, Arsen and Raizen all remained as close as could be, though a particularly close bond had been formed between Shigure and Dolph. The two became like brothers and seemed almost inseparable. 

 

     Arsleia and Alexander were spending their lives together as the new Queen and Commander of the Queen's Knights, which Euram helped Alexander out with each and every day in all of the little ways he could. 

 

     Then came a day that nobody expected Shigure to start, something that was a shock. He came to everyone in the Queen's Chambers, specifically requesting the presence of Georg, Dolph, Zera and Geris. "I would like for the four of you to accompany me to Eris' former room. I wish to clear it out and make it suitable for another person."

 

     Georg turned to look at him, eyes full of surprise but a nod moving his head down and back up. "Alright." 

 

     The five of them departed for Eris' room upstairs, where Shigure stopped and looked at the door with quite a bit of hesitance. "Shigure, it's alright. We're right here."

 

     Shigure nodded to him, moving his hand forward and placing it on the cold knob of the door. He twisted it and pushed open the door, staring inside at the room he held so many mixed feelings for. He looked to the bed, the table and chairs, and then-

 

     Georg finally placed a hand on his shoulder, raising him from his thoughts. "Come on. Let's get started." 

 

     With a nod, Shigure stepped forward and allowed everyone else to set about on their own tasks. Removing the bedding from the bed, including removing the bed - he no longer wished to see it. Dusting off the furniture to make it look better. He then set off on his own task, hesitant feet traveling to the closet and hands halting in front of the knobs on its doors. Georg stood with him, and soon everyone was behind them staring at the pair. 

 

     Shigure finally opened the doors to the closet, looking inside and seeing Eris' Nether Gate uniform hanging inside. His stomach churned a bit, twisting and turning with anger and sadness. "Georg, I'll have you take care of her uniforms. I'll.. take care of everything else."

 

     Georg watched in awe as Shigure took into his hands a few items - her wedding gown, the clothing she'd worn when they were all on the run from Sol Falena so many years ago, her Queen's Knights uniform, and finally the clothing she'd taken to wearing that was similar in style to something Oboro would have worn. When all of her clothing was gathered into the arms of Shigure and Georg, they turned around while Shigure began to speak. "Come on. We're traveling to just outside of Sol Falena."

 

     It took then just shy of an hour to travel to Viki, have her teleport them Stormfist, and then get to the Western Woods. Shigure placed his arm-full of clothing on the ground, watching Georg follow his lead. He looked back to Lyon, sighing before staring at the pile once more. "Lyon, set them alight."

 

     Albeit with a bit of hesitance, Lyon raised her right hand and used her equipped Fire Rune to set the pile of clothing on fire. Dolph stood to the left of Shigure while Georg stood to his right, both holding each of his hands for comfort. Dolph sighed deeply and let his eyes catch sight of her Nether Gate uniform that was burning at the right side of the pile. "Lyon, do you remember how close we used to be while in Nether Gate? Like brother and sister - we pushed each other to be better, and we took care of each other."

 

     Lyon nodded behind him, looking to the back of him before turning her gaze back to the burning pile. "I do, somewhat. I remember a lot of things." She broke away from beside Frey and in front of Sialeeds, walking to stand directly in front of the fire. "I still remember the day they took me. I wasn't really sure where my parents went, and I still don't really know that now, but this man in a robe came up to me. He said that he could take care of me - that I should go with him so that I could grow up healthy and strong. So I did."

 

     Everyone stood by and watched her in awe, surprised that she was actually unloading all of her past into the air of the present, but they all allowed her the time and words necessary. 

 

     She stared deep into the fire, eyes full of pain that nobody could see from where they currently stood. "I remember the day I walked into that building. It was tall and I felt so small - I didn't know where I'd go first. I just knew that I wanted to go everywhere because there was so much of it to explore. I remember the day they had me start my training. I won't make any excuses - I'm grateful for some of the things they taught me. I don't think I would have ever been so prepared for a lot of the things we faced back then had they not taken me in and trained me."

 

     Shigure squeezed Dolph's hand before letting go of both his and Georg's own, stepping forward to put a hand on Lyon's shoulder - he stood beside her and held her with an arm around her shoulders. When she looked to him, he gave her a nod to continue. "Then, a boy came. There were a lot of them of there when I first arrived, but none my age. They were all teenagers and I was just a kid - I really didn't have any reason to talk to them, but this boy was around my age. When I met him, he told me that his name was Michafute - I told him mine was Mismar. We grew really close over the few years that I spent there - we were like siblings.

 

     "I was out in the woods one day, training. It was raining outside. A strange man, much older than me - old enough to be my father. He said he had come to rescue me. When he took me back home, I met his wife and his children. The boy was so beautiful - long white hair and soft blue eyes. His name was Frey. His parents' names were Arshtat and Ferid, they told me, and his little sister's name was Lymsleia, though everyone called her Lym. Arshtat had a sister named Sialeeds, and I loved meeting her. At dinner that night, Ferid gave me the name Lyon. That day was when everything changed for me.

 

     "But to look back on all of this, I have to look back on something I wish I could forget. I remember there were always a pair of siblings - they always trained together and with nobody else. I never learned their names, but I'll always remember what they looked like. Fair skin, and they both had long brown hair. His was so fluffy - I remember I always wanted to touch it to see if it was as soft as it looked. She always smiled, but it never felt real."

 

     At this point, Shigure's hands were a tad bit shaky against her shoulders, eyes gazing into the dying fire. 

 

     "We were all in the main room training, and the master started walking around to ask everyone questions - except the two siblings. He never posed them the question. We were asked who wanted to be the one to kill Sagiri. Everyone was hesitant but one person - Erismar. We didn't think anything of it until later that night, when I heard a struggle from the other side of my wall in my room. I never knew what happened until recently, but I remember being so scared - thinking I would be next. The next day, I found Michafute and stood next to him the entire day. I was scared to leave his side in fear that I would be killed or never see him again."

 

     She sighed deeply, looking back to Frey. "Frey, I love you. I love your parents and your sister, and Sialeeds too. All of you welcomed me with open arms when Ferid brought me to the palace that day. I was so scared of this new place that was even bigger than the headquarters of Nether Gate, and I couldn't begin to imagine how I would fit in there - but I did. You all made me feel at home, and you gave me my very first true sense of belonging. I had people I belonged with while in Nether Gate, but being brought to the Sun Palace was the first place I felt I could belong to. Thank you to all of you for giving me a purpose again, and letting me heal in my own ways."

 

     Frey approached her and hugged her tightly, kissing her lips deeply for an added sense of comfort. "Lyon, there's no need to thank either of us here. We did what any family would have ever done - accepted you and gave you love. It's what you deserved, so that's what you were given."

 

     At this point, the fire had died out and they were all left standing at the pile of ashes in its place. "Are you all ready to go back home?"

 

     Frey nodded and had everyone bundle up together, and soon they were all teleported back to the foyer of the Sun Palace. Everyone began to break off in their own separate directions, leaving Georg, Shigure and Dolph together. "Are you all ready to go up to your room? I have nothing to discuss, but I would like to sit with you both for a while."

 

     Shigure looked to Dolph, smiling and nodding his head. "Yeah. Let's go, Alistair."

 

     Dolph stopped in his tracks, mouth hung open as he stared at Shigure. "You called me-"

 

     Nodding, Shigure smiled at Dolph. "Of course I did. That's your name - the one you were given at birth, and the name you told us to call you by. So that's what I'll do. It's what you deserve, just as Lyon deserves to be called by her name given by Ferid. Alistair, you'll never be reduced to names of your past. Not now, not ever."

 

     Dolph nodded with a smile, heading up to their room with the married couple before him. When they set foot inside, Shigure and Georg both took a seat while Dolph stood at the door after closing it. 

 

     He finally sat on the bed, and finally Alistair was home - right where he belonged and needed to be. 

 

     Finally  **everyone** was home, and right where they needed to be and belonged. 


	8. Ideas of No Fruition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here you will find ideas I had for this story that never came about. I went back and forth on a lot of these, one of which was rather risqué - I chose to omit these ideas as I could possibly just do something better in their place, which is ultimately what happened instead. I didn't want to just toss these out, so I decided to share them with you all instead. 
> 
> Enjoy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please keep in mind that these ideas were written in yet later omitted, so they were never meant to make it to the public. Therefor, there may very well be holes in the plot lines of them. There may also be differences in how they were written in comparison to the epilogue chapters - that is because when I wrote these ideas, and also the ending to the third chapter itself, I was at a different level of writing ability than I am now. This is also why there was a change in the style of writing between the third chapter and the epilogue chapters. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy what never made it to the public story - these ideas, despite being left out, hold a deep place in my heart.

**[ Idea I ]**

 

Initially, Eris was never intended to turn out as an evil character. This was an idea that I had later into the third chapter of the story. Ultimately, I felt the story would have had more meaning to it if I turned her into the antagonist later on, and pushed that into the story. As you can all imagine, the story would have either ended much sooner or had a very different ending altogether had I kept her a good person. 

 

* * *

 

 

**[ Idea II ]**

 

Something else that was also never typed into the story was actually put into the nightmare sequence for Frey in his epilogue chapter, though in a much smaller version than what I had intended. The version I originally thought of including into the third chapter was to have Arsen be taken over by the rune he's had equipped to his body - the Rune of Punishment, which made its own appearance in Suikoden IV. Obviously, this rune is never mentioned in this story as I decided that there had honestly been more than enough chaos in the story, aside from what I already had planned to add in later. I just didn't see the reason in putting this idea into the story, yet decided to make much smaller use of it later for Frey's epilogue chapter. His nightmare was already planned when I thought out the idea of his epilogue, and it gave me a rather good excuse to use this idea in much smaller fashion - something happening to all of the people he loves. Nightmares can also contain things happening that are very much impossible by nature, which was a perfect time to use this - out of a nightmare, the sudden mention of the Rune of Punishment being attached to Arsen would have seemed rather silly, despite the fact that Suikoden V's time-line falls before any of the other games' time-lines. 

 

* * *

 

 

**[ Idea III ]**

 

Now here comes the risqué idea I mentioned in the summary. Originally, I had a date planned for Geris and Zera, which led to a very NSFW scene. It being the only one I ever wrote out for the story, I thought it would have been very odd to include it. Obviously, there are some NSFW scenes in this story, yet they were all in the second chapter of the story. Adding a very sudden one into the third chapter seemed odd to me, and thus it never happened. I do have it typed out, and you can view it below if you are so inclined. If you are not interested in reading this, please skip forward to [ Idea IV ] by either scrolling down or using CTRL + F to use the webpage search function. 

 

\----

 

     Geris ran outside to the courtyard, grabbing Zera by his wrist and looking him in the eyes. They locked eyes for a few seconds before Geris pulled him into a passionate kiss that lasted for half of a moment. When he pulled away, he was breathless and blushing, eyes once again locked with Zera’s own. “Zera, I love you. I need you with me.”

     Zera gave him a smile that nobody else would ever have the honor of witnessing, taking Geris’ hand and kissing the top of it, kneeling down in front of him and looking up into his eyes. “Then it is my pleasure to extend the same feelings of passion to you as well, Geris.” He stood up again, kissing the other’s lips this time, parting their lips after a few seconds to stare into his eyes. “Would you like to go out with me? I will return you here before dark, and you have my word that I will protect you from whatever necessary.”

     Geris smiled, lacing their fingers together and beginning to walk with him. “I would like that very much Zera. Where would you like to go? I’m following you, of course.” Zera began to lead him into town and soon out of it, towards the wooded areas. Geris was growing a tad bit worried, expressing his concern to Zera. “Are you sure it’s safe to be out here? Monsters are always out this way..”

     Zera chuckled, kissing Geris’ cheek before straightening his arm at his side. “Here, you can hold onto my arm if it makes you feel better. I’ll protect you, Geris; just follow me.” When he felt Geris’ grip around his upper arm, he began to take his stride into a deeper area of the forest that had yet to be discovered by Geris. After just a short while, they arrived at something that was almost straight out of a storybook - a small lake, flower beds all around to sit in, and trees that hung over the area. Zera took his seat and extended his hand to allow Geris to sit beside him, smiling. “It’s beautiful, is it not? The first time I saw this just a month ago, I knew I had to bring you here.”

     Geris nuzzled his body against Zera’s, humming an agreement to him. “It is beautiful out here.” He seemed to be thinking about various things, eyes constantly shifting to look from flowers to water, from trees to flowers; all over the place. He couldn’t seem to sit still, body tense despite being nuzzled up against Zera’s form. The boy in black could easily tell something was displaced about Geris, his head turning so his eyes could meet with the peripheral of Geris’ own.

     “Geris, what ever has gotten into you? You won’t sit still and you’ve been so.. hands on today.” He was met with the color of pink cover Geris’ cheeks and the turning away of his head, as if he was trying to hide something or was embarrassed about something. “Geris, as much as I would enjoy the ability to do so, I can’t read your mind. Tell me what’s wrong?” He was met with more fidgeting and blushing, his fingers twiddling and skimming across the surface of Zera’s arm slightly muscular arm.

     Finally, Zera was taken by surprise, coming nowhere near to expecting what Geris was going to do. Geris had let go of Zera’s arm and playfully shoved him down to lean over him, legs straddling his lap yet making no contact with it yet. He shoved his lips down to plant kiss after kiss on Zera’s lips, not bothering to catch his breath in between any of them; passion was taking over him and sending him into autopilot. Finally, he began to kiss him longer, this time shoving his tongue against Zera’s lips to attempt to part them; being granted permission, he let his tongue slide against Zera’s own, groaning and whimpering into his mouth as he kept getting stimulated at even the slightest movement of their bodies against each other.

     Zera reached a hand up to run through the back of Geris’ hair, moaning lowly into his mouth as he felt their hips slightly grind together. He finally had to pull away to breathe, panting heavily as he stared up into the brown eyes above him, a heat and lust in his eyes he had yet to sate with Geris. “My my, you’re rather playful today, aren’t you?”

     Geris laughed breathily before gasping softly, the sudden stimulation of Zera’s most prized possession pressing against his thigh sneaking up on him. “I guess I wasn’t the only who was excited..” Geris jabbed at the fact that Zera was obviously turned on in his pants, as he himself was as well, staring down into his eyes with lust practically dripping from his own.

     Zera turned the tables on his lover, rolling them over to take the dominant position and his head closer to Geris’ neck to begin kissing and nibbling on it, grinding his hips down against those underneath him. He smirked against the skin under his lips as he heard gasp after gasp and moan after moan in response to the pleasure filling his partner’s body, turning his nibbles into soft bites. Geris finally yelped out and pursed his lips together, a spark of embarrassment filling his mind and his head folding down toward his chest as if to hide his face; a bite on his neck from Zera proved to bring him back out of his shell, a whimpering groan of pleasure leaving his lips. “Ahh, Zera..!!”

     Zera stopped and looked down at Geris to see him panting and gasping for breath, cheeks tinted rose and lips trembling in absolute pleasure. He looked up into Zera’s eyes, sighing as he tried to make sense of every thought in his head and every feeling in his body. However, the only thing he could dare make sense of was the fact that his shaft was hard in his pants and Zera, his lover, was straddling his lap and grinding his hips against his own; it left him in such a state of pleasure that leaving it now would leave him in the largest state of discomfort he’d ever felt before.

     He lifted his head up to whisper into Zera’s ear, wanting to speak his thoughts for only his lover to hear. “I want you to make love to me, Zera. Please. I need you connected to me as much as we could possibly have it.” His voice was breathy and needy, eyes clouded over with lust and staring directly into Zera’s eyes once he pulled away to look at him. Zera immediately smirked and kissed his lips, gently biting his lip on the way out of the kiss. “I had no other intentions in mind, dearest.”

     He rolled Geris over to lie on his stomach, slowly easing his pants off and looking around to see just how hard his lover was for him, also making note that he was already quite wet. He reached his hand over to slowly stroke it for just a few seconds before retracting his hand, despite receiving such a positive and verbal response from Geris. He removed his own pants to reveal himself as well, leaning completely over the boy underneath him after adjusting his shaft to the correct place. “Geris, it’s going to hurt. Take my hand, whatever you need; if you need for me to stop, let me know.”

     Seeing Geris nod his head, he started to slide himself into his lover and moaning lowly against his neck. He let Geris clench his hand and lace their fingers together, whispering sweet nothings against his neck to distract him from whatever pain he was feeling.

     After a full moment, he was finally fully inserted into his lover, letting Geris give him his own cue to start movement; once permission was granted, he started to slowly thrust his hips toward and away from his body, a shaky moan leaving his lips and whimpers leaving Geris’ own.  “Ahh, G-.. eris; it.. ah, fuck, it feels so good..” He spent the next moment with his hips quickly thrusting to and fro, his body quivering as he felt himself growing closer and closer to the edge.

     Geris began to whimper and moan loudly, hand gripping Zera’s own until his knuckles were turning white, his shaft still leaking all over the flowers beneath him and thighs quivering heavily. His body shook and convulsed as he fought off his climax moment after moment, mouth gaped open and dribbling saliva from his lips as he felt Zera ramming into his deepest spot within him. He whined and whimpered while struggling to coherently speak any form of sentence to his lover, other hand reaching to blindly grab at the forest floor when he felt a small spurt of his seed prematurely release from his shaft. “Ze- ahh!!-- z.. ra..! I-- mm!! Need to.. ahh, fuck.. release, p-please! I can’t.. wa- ahhn!!- wait anym-more..”

     Zera sped his thrusts up even more, grunting and moaning against the back of Geris’ neck as he felt himself climbing up to the edge of orgasm. When he reached it, he gasped and kissed the back of his lover’s neck, gasping for breath before speaking. “I-I’m right there, Geris. R.. eady?” When Geris’ silently nodded his head, he felt his hips stuttering in speed as he began to release himself inside of the other male, voice shakily groaning out as he kept thrusting gently to milk himself of everything left.

     Geris whimpered out loudly, his shaft spurting over and over with his seed beneath him and his body shaking as he could hardly even contain himself through his release. He couldn’t even moan Zera’s name, words having been completely lost in the pleasure as it took over every part of him. After a full fifteen seconds had passed, his release stopped and he lay beneath Zera panting and trying to recover from the ultimate euphoria that had taken him over. Zera had since removed himself from Geris’ backside, having done so during his release as he knew the pleasure would be far enough of a distraction should there be any pain.

     Zera rolled himself over and held Geris from behind, kissing his neck and nuzzling up against him. “Geris, that was amazing. Why didn’t we do this with each other sooner?” Geris mumbled incoherently, unable to even speak a word at this moment in time, which produced a chuckled from Zera. “Let’s rest for just a bit before we head back toward the palace. I doubt we’d be very good at walking this soon after, would we?” He chuckled at his own rhetorical question, closing his eyes and relaxing his body against Geris’ own. He decided to take the opportunity to pull both their pairs of pants back up to cover themselves, should any explorers come passing through their neck of the woods they made a temporary home in.

 

* * *

 

 

**[ Idea IV ]**

 

In the third chapter, you all are aware that Eris went out on her supposed medical training, which turned out to be a guise for her to return to Nether Gate and put forth her final plan of atrocities. Well, originally Sagiri was to be the one kidnapped. In fact, the idea that the real Sagiri had been killed years ago was an idea only put in due to Eris being morphed into an antagonist of the story. In this idea, Sagiri was kidnapped and placed back into the care of Nether Gate, being forced to work under them once again.

 

This led to a discussion between Eris, Georg and Shigure about reclaiming her back into their ranks, which led to Eris telling them of Nether Gate's earlier plans to take Sagiri years ago - you may recall when Eris "rejoined" Nether Gate in the second chapter, going to Stormfist to supposedly become a figurehead member and gather information for Shigure, Frey, Lyon and company. When she was there at that time, they were already speaking of plans to reclaim Sagiri. Shigure gets angry with Eris for not speaking of this information sooner, and things turn sour, leading to him calling her Erismar for the first time since claiming the name of Eris and losing her hold of the PTSD related effects the name "Erismar" held for her. 

 

The next day, everyone sets off into their own groups to initiate an attack on the headquarters of Nether Gate itself. Shigure finds himself engaged in combat with who he believes to be his sister, and this unnamed character is who I included into the story that made it on here. If you recall mention in Sagiri's Nether Gate files of a member who was able to disguise herself as any person of any gender, height or age, this is that character. 

 

Sagiri is being kept in a cell of her own while the girl disguising herself as Sagiri is killed, leaving Shigure distraught as he is not yet aware that this isn't his sister. 

 

Georg and the rest of their group meet back up with Eris before heading into the room which holds the master of Nether Gate - this is your early version of Arsen which held the Rune of Punishment, everyone. This is the version of Arsen which never made the final cut, but god damn would that have been interesting. 

 

Eris and Georg learn here that Arsen is her father, and after much discussion they had back to Lyon and Shigure in the room where he supposedly killed Sagiri. Arsen finally tells them of the real identity of the person who was killed, and the real Sagiri (who is still very much safe and sound, and actually asleep) is retrieved from the cell she was being kept in. Shigure and Lyon hear the same tale told to Eris and Georg of how Arsen was tied to strings to return to his position as master of Nether Gate after Eris was born. 

 

All of them head back to the Sun Palace at this point, where Eris remained attached at the hip to Arsen. 

 

* * *

 

 

**[ Idea V ]**

 

This idea comes immediately following the NSFW scene between Geris and Zera. I actually never completed this idea in whole, which still sits with a comma at the end of the first half of it - this was truly an idea never completed, and I can't quite remember to this day what the final destination of it was. 

 

This idea revolves around the two returning to the Sun Palace to find Sagiri attacking Shigure, still struggling through Nether Gate's hold on her mind. Once she is calm enough to look to Shigure, he can see she is no longer smiling and is in fact crying, to which he responds by holding her for comfort. 

 

Georg ushers everyone downstairs, and that's where this idea was halted. 

 

I don't have anything left of it, and this was the extent of it, unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you wish to see it. 

 

* * *

 

 

These were all the ideas I managed to find that weren't included in the story. If I find more, I'll add another chapter or edit them to this one. You should be seeing another chapter coming as well, where I will be sharing music that helped me for particular scenes that I wrote for this story. 

 


End file.
